Christopher Fox, Baron Fox
British Liberal Democrat Politician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christopher Francis Fox, Baron Fox (born 27 September 1957), is a British Liberal Democrat politician.
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The Lord Fox | |
|---|---|
Fox in 2017 | |
| Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats | |
| In office 2009–2011 | |
| Preceded by | Chris Rennard |
| Succeeded by | Tim Gordon |
| Member of the House of Lords | |
| Life peerage 11 September 2014 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 September 1957 Surrey, England |
| Party | Liberal Democrats |
| Spouse | Essie Fox[1] |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | Imperial College London |
Education and early career
Fox grew up in Herefordshire, attending Leominster Grammar School.[2] He went on to study at Imperial College London, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in chemistry.[3] During his time at university Fox spent a year as President of the Imperial College Students' Union.[4][5]
Fox's professional career began with engineering roles in the petroleum and nuclear industries. From 1998 to 2005 he worked at Tate & Lyle, before joining Smiths Group and, later, GKN, as Group Director of Communications.[6][7]
Fox served as Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats (UK) from 2009 and 2011.[8] In this role he managed the party through the 2010 General Election and the beginning of the Cameron-Clegg Coalition Government. He has been credited with overseeing a major reorganisation of the party's campaigns staff, moving the party out of its historic Cowley Street HQ to more modern offices on Great George Street, and introducing a new online election database system.[9]
Since 2017, Fox has been a patron of children's charity, WAVE Trust.[10]
House of Lords
Chris Fox was created a life peer as Baron Fox, of Leominster in the County of Herefordshire, on 11 September 2014, following nomination by Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg.[11]
Since becoming a Member of the House of Lords, Lord Fox has taken an interest in policy relating to business, industry, science and technology.[12] From June 2015 he was a member of the Lords Science and Technology Committee, in July 2019 changing to be a member of the Economic Affairs Committee.[13][14]
In June 2017, Lord Fox was appointed Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the House of Lords.
A critic of Brexit, Lord Fox was one of several Peers to oppose the UK Government's post-referendum negotiations and legislative agenda.[15] In 2020, he described the Government's Internal Market Bill as "illegal".[16] In 2023, Fox led parliamentary opposition to the Retained EU Law Bill, leading to concessions from the government.[17]
He is Vice President of the German-British Chamber of Industry and Commerce, and an Executive member of the British-American Parliamentary Group.[18]
In May 2020 The Daily Telegraph reported that Fox had furloughed himself under the government financed COVID support scheme in his single employee company, Vulpes Advisory, which had a £100,000 cash balance, as well as claiming his £162 daily allowance for Lords Zoom video meetings attendance. The newspaper critically characterised this as a "double dip into the taxpayers' pocket", and some MPs said this was "milking the taxpayer".[19] Fox apologised for his "error in judgment" and promised to repay the furlough money.[20]