Andrew Mitchell

The Right Honourable Andrew Mitchell MP
Official portrait, 2022
Deputy Foreign Secretary
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 April 2024
Prime Minister	Rishi Sunak
Foreign Secretary	The Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton
Preceded by	Office established
Minister of State for Development and Africa
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 October 2022
Prime Minister	Rishi Sunak
Preceded by	Vicky Ford[a] Gillian Keegan[b]
Chief Whip of the House of Commons Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
In office 4 September 2012 – 19 October 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Patrick McLoughlin
Succeeded by	Sir George Young
Secretary of State for International Development
In office 12 May 2010 – 4 September 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Douglas Alexander
Succeeded by	Justine Greening
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
In office 7 May 2005 – 11 May 2010
Leader	Michael Howard David Cameron
Preceded by	Alan Duncan
Succeeded by	Douglas Alexander
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security
In office 6 July 1995 – 2 May 1997
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Alistair Burt
Succeeded by	John Denham
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
In office 20 July 1994 – 6 July 1995
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Irvine Patnick
Succeeded by	David Willetts
Member of Parliament for Sutton Coldfield
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 2001
Preceded by	Norman Fowler
Majority	19,272 (36.8%)
Member of Parliament for Gedling
In office 11 June 1987 – 8 April 1997
Preceded by	Philip Holland
Succeeded by	Vernon Coaker
Personal details
Born	Andrew John Bower Mitchell (1956-03-23) 23 March 1956 (age 68) Hampstead, London, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Sharon Bennett
Parent	Sir David Mitchell (father)
Alma mater	Jesus College, Cambridge
Signature
Website	Constituency website

Andrew John Bower Mitchell (born 23 March 1956) is a British politician currently serving as Deputy Foreign Secretary since 2024 and Minister of State for Development and Africa since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sutton Coldfield since 2001 having previously served as the MP for Gedling from 1987 to 1997. Mitchell served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2010 to 2012 and then briefly as Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons in late 2012.

Mitchell studied History at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was elected President of the Cambridge Union in 1978. He was elected to the House of Commons for Gedling in Nottinghamshire at the 1987 general election. He served in the second Major government as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 1994 to 1995 and as a junior minister at the Department of Social Security from 1995 to 1997. Mitchell lost his seat to the Labour Party's Vernon Coaker at the 1997 general election. In 2001, he contested Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, a safe seat for the Conservatives, and was returned to Parliament.

Mitchell was appointed to the Shadow cabinet in 2005 as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. In this role, he founded Project Umubano, a Conservative Party social action project in Rwanda and Sierra Leone in central and west Africa.^[1] Under the coalition government of David Cameron, he served as Secretary of State for International Development from 2010 to 2012. In the September 2012 cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed chief whip. Amid public pressure due to the Plebgate scandal, Mitchell resigned from the government the following month, and returned to the backbenches.^[2] In 2022, after serving on the backbenches for 10 years, Mitchell made a return to government as Minister of State for Development and Africa following the appointment of Rishi Sunak as prime minister. He was appointed to the honorific title of Deputy Foreign Secretary on 12 April 2024.^[3][4]

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