Kit Malthouse

Christopher Laurie "Kit" Malthouse (born 27 October 1966)[2] is a British politician, businessman and occasional writer serving as Minister of State for Crime and Policing at the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice since February 2020.[3] He was the Minister for Crime, Policing and the Fire Service from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Hampshire since 2015.

Kit Malthouse

MP
Malthouse in 2017
Minister of State for Crime and Policing[1]
Assumed office
25 July 2019
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byNick Hurd
Minister of State for Housing and Planning
In office
9 July 2018 – 25 July 2019
Prime MinisterTheresa May
Preceded byDominic Raab
Succeeded byEsther McVey
Minister of State for Family Support
In office
9 January 2018 – 9 July 2018
Prime MinisterTheresa May
Preceded byCaroline Dinenage
Succeeded byJustin Tomlinson
Member of Parliament
for North West Hampshire
Assumed office
7 May 2015
Preceded bySir George Young, Bt
Majority26,308 (45.1%)
Deputy Mayor of London for Business and Enterprise
In office
9 May 2012 – 9 May 2016
MayorBoris Johnson
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byRajesh Agrawal
Deputy Mayor of London for Policing
In office
6 May 2008 – 9 May 2012
MayorBoris Johnson
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byStephen Greenhalgh (Policing and Crime)
Member of the London Assembly
for West Central
In office
1 May 2008 – 5 May 2016
Preceded byAngie Bray
Succeeded byTony Devenish
Personal details
Born
Christopher Laurie Malthouse

(1966-10-27) 27 October 1966
Aigburth, Liverpool, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)
Tracy-Jane Newall
​
​
(m. 1996; div. 2005)​

Juliana Farha
​
(m. 2007)​
Children3
Alma materNewcastle University
WebsiteOfficial website

Malthouse served on the Westminster City Council from 1998 to 2006 and was Deputy Council Leader from 2004 to 2006. He served as a Conservative member of the London Assembly for West Central from 2008 to 2016. He represented the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He served under Mayor of London Boris Johnson as Deputy Mayor for Policing from 2008 to 2012 and Deputy Mayor for Business and Enterprise from 2012 to 2015.

He was elected as Member of Parliament for North West Hampshire at the 2015 general election. Following the 2018 cabinet reshuffle, Malthouse was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions. After Dominic Raab was appointed Brexit Secretary, Malthouse served as Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2018 to 2019. Malthouse was credited as the convener of an agreement between limited factions of the Conservative Party on Brexit, The Malthouse Compromise in January 2019. The compromise was later voted down in Parliament in March 2019.

Early life and business career

Malthouse was born to John Christopher Malthouse and Susan[2] in the Aigburth area of Liverpool, and educated at Sudley County Primary and Liverpool College. He studied Politics and Economics at Newcastle University.

Malthouse trained to be a chartered accountant at Touche Ross & Company (now Deloitte), qualifying in 2004. He then left and worked as Finance Director of the Cannock Group. He led the management buyout of the part of that group called County Holdings and became chairman of the company.

Political career

Westminster City Council (1998–2006)

Malthouse's first run for office was to represent the constituency of Liverpool Wavertree in the 1997 general election. The seat, which had been recreated after being abolished following the 1979 general election, was easily won by Labour candidate Jane Kennedy, who took 29,592 votes (64.4%). Malthouse came third with 4,944 votes (10.8%), behind Liberal Democrat candidate Richard C. Kemp.

Malthouse was elected to Westminster council in May 1998, representing St George's ward in the Pimlico area of central London. Following boundary changes, he was re-elected in May 2002 for Warwick ward, which is also in Pimlico. Malthouse was appointed as Chief Whip of the Conservative Group, and following a change of leader to Sir Simon Milton, he was appointed Chairman of the Social Services Committee. Two years later, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Council and became Cabinet Member for Finance.

He retired from Westminster City Council at the May 2006 local elections.[4] Malthouse challenged the results of the 2001 population census, which he said seriously underestimated the population of the City of Westminster. Following a two-year battle with the Office for National Statistics, the City of Westminster population was revised upwards by 10%. and a review of future census methodology was commissioned.[5]

Malthouse argued against the introduction of the London congestion charge, opposing it on the grounds that the idea should not be first introduced in the most populous city in England,[6] and that London was already one of the most expensive cities to live in.[7]

As Deputy Leader of Westminster Council, Malthouse was responsible for agreeing to a £12.3 million settlement with Shirley Porter over the £27 million surcharge, eventually raising to £42 million in costs and interest, imposed on her as a result of the Homes for Votes gerrymandering fraud scandal.[8]

First term as a member of the London Assembly (2008–2012)

On 26 March 2007, he was selected as the Conservative candidate for the London Assembly seat of West Central. The Assembly elections took place on 1 May 2008, and Malthouse received 53% of the vote. He was appointed Deputy Mayor for Policing two days later.[9]

Deputy Mayor for Policing (2008–2012)

Malthouse was appointed Deputy Mayor of London for Policing by Mayor Boris Johnson with effect from 6 May 2008.[10] In October 2008 he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority by Johnson. Malthouse was a member of the board of the Association of Police Authorities, and the London Regional Resilience Forum. He was also involved in the Ministerial Steering Group of the London Criminal Justice Partnership.

Malthouse has introduced Met Forward, the Authority's strategic mission for London's police.[11] Alongside the Mayor of London and the then Deputy Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, Malthouse released ‘Time for Action’ on 3 November 2008 in response to escalating concerns about youth violence in London.[12] Malthouse campaigned against dangerous dogs across London.[13] He also campaigned for changes to the dangerous dogs legislation to introduce tougher punishments and worked with the CPS to reduce the long delays in the court process to reduce the kenneling costs.[14]

Malthouse campaigned against the presence of prostitution cards in telephone kiosks across London. He also devised the 2010 program 'The Way Forward – a plan for London to tackle violence against women and girls'.[15] In March 2012, Malthouse was urged to resign by Labour MP Chris Bryant for reportedly saying too many police resources were allocated to the investigation into press phone hacking.[16][17][18]

While Deputy Mayor of London, Malthouse expressed concerns about the growing numbers of foxes and said: "People are afraid to let their small children play outside because of them. They are more and more worried about the number of foxes as numbers continue to grow."[19] Following his election to Parliament, he stated that he would vote to repeal the Hunting Act 2004, which bans the hunting of foxes with dogs.[20]

Deputy Mayor for Business and Enterprise (2012–2016)

In May 2012, Malthouse was appointed as London's first Deputy Mayor for Business and Enterprise, with the task of increasing the number of Londoners in employment, and leading economic and business policy for City Hall. Malthouse was also appointed co-chair of the London Enterprise Partnership. Malthouse is a board member of TheCityUK and HyER, the European Association for Hydrogen and fuel cells and Electro-mobility and chair of Hydrogen London. Malthouse is also a board member of London & Partners, the promotional body for the capital.

Member of Parliament for North West Hampshire (since 2015)

On 4 July 2014 it was announced that Malthouse would be selected as the Conservative candidate in the 2015 general election for the North West Hampshire constituency.[21] The seat had been occupied by Sir George Young since 1997, who announced in 2013 that he would retire in 2015.[22] In March 2015 Malthouse resigned his position as Deputy Mayor of London to concentrate on his parliamentary campaign; the office remained vacant until 2016. He won the seat in North West Hampshire with a majority of 23,943.

In March 2016, Malthouse was asked by Andover's MS Society to step down from his role as a patron. The charity felt he was no longer suitable for the role as he had recently voted to cut ESA to the same level as JSA for those in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG).[23]

He served as Minister of State for Family Support in 2018 and Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2018 to 2019. Malthouse was credited as the convener of an agreement between two Conservative party factions on Brexit which aimed to rewrite the Irish backstop. The House of Commons voted down the agreement in March 2019[24][25] after EU negotiators criticised it as unrealistic.[26] On 27 May 2019, Malthouse announced that he was standing in the Conservative Party leadership election to replace Theresa May.[27] On 4 June 2019, Malthouse announced that he was withdrawing from the contest.

In July 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Malthouse to the position of Minister for Policing, succeeding Nick Hurd.

In addition to his role as Minister of State for Policing, Malthouse took on additional responsibilities as a Minister of State at the Ministry for Justice.

Personal life

He married Juliana Fahra in 2007.[2] They have one son and one daughter together. He also has a son from a previous marriage.

References
  1. Jointly with the Ministry of Justice from February 2020 and responsibility for Fire services from August 2019 to February 2020
  2. "Malthouse, Christopher Laurie, (Kit), (born 27 Oct. 1966), MP (C) Hampshire North West, since 2015; Minister of State, Home Office, since 2019". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u247015. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  3. "Latest updates on ministerial appointments: February 2020". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  4. "Westminster City Council: Candidates 2006". David Boothroyd. 2006. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
  5. Briscoe, Simon (9 July 2004). "Population update ends census error". Financial Times. p. 5.
  6. Marston, Paul (1 August 2002). "Bid to block road toll fails". The Daily Telegraph. p. 2.
  7. "Britain: A shoo-in". The Economist. 362 (8261): 33. 2002.
  8. Blitz, Roger (6 July 2004). "Shirley Porter pays Pounds 12m settlement". Financial Times. p. 4.
  9. "Kit Malthouse". Kit Malthouse. 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
  10. "Boris Johnson announces further senior appointments to his administration". london.gov.uk. 6 May 2008. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2008.
  11. Archived 5 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  12. "Mayor of London – Time for Action". Static.london.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 17 August 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  13. Malthouse, Kit (2 November 2009). "Muzzles are not enough dogs are weapons". The Times. London.
  14. "Dangerous dog seizures 'may rise'". BBC News. 2 June 2009.
  15. Whalley, Kirsty. "London Mayor's office pledges support for Newsquest's sex ads ban". Thisislocallondon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 15 April 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  16. "Kit Malthouse 'should resign over phone-hacking comments'". BBC News. 6 March 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  17. Hughes, Mark (6 March 2012). "Deputy mayor Kit Malthouse questioned hacking investigation". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  18. O'Carroll, Lisa (5 March 2012). "Boris Johnson's deputy complained 'several times' about hacking inquiry". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  19. Hewitt, David (28 July 2012). "London battles its urban fox problem". Toronto Star. Toronto. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  20. Gregory, Chris (25 June 2015). "Basingstoke MP Maria Miller backs fox hunting ban repeal". Basingstoke Gazette. Basingstoke. Retrieved 22 July 2015. Mr Malthouse's office said he would vote to repeal the act, but did not provide a reason.
  21. "Kit Malthouse selected as North West Hampshire PPC". Nwh-tories.co.uk. 4 July 2014. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  22. "Chief whip Sir George Young to retire as MP in 2015". BBC News. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  23. Watt, Nicholas; Mason, Rowena; Gani, Aisha (18 March 2016). "Disability benefit cuts not acceptable, Conservative rebels tell Osborne". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  24. Butterworth, Benjamin (13 March 2019). "Brexit latest: MPs vote 164-374 against 'Plan C' Malthouse compromise". inews.co.uk.
  25. Mikhailova, Anna; Maidment, Jack (13 March 2019). "No deal Brexit ruled out by MPs in all circumstances as chaos deepens" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  26. Rankin, Jennifer (4 February 2019). "'Bonkers': what the EU thinks of the Malthouse compromise". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  27. Daniel, Alex (27 May 2019). "Housing minister Kit Malthouse joins Tory leadership race". www.cityam.com. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir George Young, Bt		 Member of Parliament
for North West Hampshire
2015–present		 Incumbent
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