Chris Leslie

Christopher Michael Leslie (born 28 June 1972) is a British Labour Co-operative politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham East since 2010. In 2015, between May and September, he served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the shadow cabinet of Acting Labour leader Harriet Harman.

Earlier in his political career, Leslie was the MP for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and a minister in the Department for Constitutional Affairs from 2001 to 2005. Between 2005 and his 2010 re-election, he worked as the director of the New Local Government Network think-tank.

Early life (1972–1997)
Born in Keighley, West Riding of Yorkshire, Leslie attended Bingley Grammar School before becoming a student at Leeds University graduating in 1994 a BA in Politics & Parliamentary Studies and gaining an MA in Industrial and Labour Studies in 1996.

From 1994 to 1996, he was an office administrator, later a political research assistant in Bradford in 1996–97. He was elected to Parliament a month before his 25th birthday.

Parliamentary career (1997–2005)
Leslie gained the seat of Shipley as a Labour Co-operative candidate in the 1997 general election defeating Marcus Fox, the chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee and Shipley's Conservative MP since 1970. In the process, Leslie overturned a 12,382 majority, to return a 2,966 majority of his own. It was the neighbouring seat to his hometown of Keighley, another seat taken by Labour from the Conservatives in 1997.

Leslie was the Baby of the House when he first entered the Commons. He was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Falconer for three and a half years. Leslie held his seat in 2001, but his majority was reduced by a half to 1,428.

Shortly before his 30th birthday, Leslie became a junior minister in the Cabinet Office in 2001 following the recent election. In 2002, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. He would then move to spend almost two years as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, working again under Falconer from 2003 to 2005. He never rebelled against a Government position during his first time in Parliament including voting in favour of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Leslie lost his seat to Philip Davies in the 2005 general election who regained the seat for the Conservatives by fewer than 500 votes.

Out of Parliament (2005–10)
Leslie led Gordon Brown's successful (and uncontested) campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2007. Having lost his seat in Shipley, in 2005, he became the director of the New Local Government Network, which was described in the Local Government Chronicle in 2001 as a "Blairite think-tank".

On 14 April 2010, he was selected as the Parliamentary Candidate for Nottingham East in the general election campaign, after the Labour National Executive Committee imposed a shortlist and selection panel following the late resignation of the MP John Heppell.

Return to Parliament (2010–present)
In the 2010 general election, Chris Leslie returned to Parliament representing Nottingham East, succeeding John Heppell.

He supported Ed Balls for the leadership of the Labour Party during the 2010 leadership election following the resignation of Gordon Brown, voting for David Miliband as his second preference.

In September 2011, he stood in the shadow cabinet elections but missed out on becoming a shadow cabinet minister, however he was promoted to Her Majesty's Opposition becoming Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury. He replaced Stephen Timms, who was made Shadow Minister of State for Employment. On 7 October 2013, he was promoted to Shadow Cabinet, becoming Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In May 2015, he was promoted to Shadow Chancellor, as Ed Balls, had lost his parliamentary seat in the 2015 general election.

Leslie supported Yvette Cooper in the 2015 Labour leadership election, and was critical of the economic policies of Jeremy Corbyn, calling them "starry-eyed, hard left". On 12 September 2015, Leslie resigned from the Labour front bench following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as party leader. Leslie is a member of the Labour Friends of Israel.