Christopher Heaton-Harris (born 28 November 1967) is a British former politician who served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from September 2022 to July 2024, and as Chief Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from February to September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Daventry from 2010 to 2024.
Born in Epsom, Heaton-Harris attended Tiffin School. He went on to study at Wolverhampton Polytechnic, before working in his family business. He was elected to the European Parliament as MEP for the East Midlands in 1999, and was the Chief Whip of the Conservatives there from 2001 to 2004. He was reelected in the 2004 election before standing down in 2009. After two unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons, Heaton-Harris was elected as MP for Daventry in the 2010 general election. He was reelected in both the 2015 and 2017 general election. On the backbenches, he was Chair of the European Research Group from 2010 to 2016.
Heaton-Harris joined the government frontbench in 2017 under Prime Minister Theresa May as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, before serving as Comptroller of the Household and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons from January to July 2018. Under May, he later served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 2018 to 2019. Under Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he served as Minister of State for Transport from 2019 to 2021 and as Minister of State for Europe from 2021 to 2022. In February 2022, he was appointed to the Cabinet as Chief Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, and was sworn in as a privy counsellor. After Liz Truss became prime minister, Heaton-Harris was appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland; an office he continued in under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. After serving in parliament for 14 years, Heaton-Harris stood down at the 2024 general election.
Born on 28 November 1967, Heaton-Harris attended the Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames. He attended Wolverhampton Polytechnic, which in 1992 became the University of Wolverhampton.
Heaton-Harris worked for the family business at New Covent Garden Market, before taking over from his father running What4 Ltd for eleven years. At the 1997 general election he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Leicester South. He again unsuccessfully contested the seat in the 2004 Leicester South by-election.
Heaton-Harris was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 as MEP for the East Midlands, and was re-elected in 2004. He was the Chief Whip of the Conservatives in the European Parliament from 2001 to March 2004.
Heaton-Harris sat on the Internal Market Committee, responsible for "co-ordination at Community level of national legislation in the sphere of the internal market and of the customs union", as well as the Central America Delegation and the Bulgaria Delegation.
He was a founding member of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, a cross-national, cross-party group of MEPs that campaigns for reforms within the parliament. Its manifesto includes creating one seat for the parliament (in Brussels), cleaning up the system for MEPs' expenses, and improving debate within the parliament.
Heaton-Harris was responsible for bringing the case of Marta Andreasen, the European Commission's Chief Accountant, to public attention in August 2002 and has been involved in fighting fraud, mismanagement and waste within the European Commission and other European institutions.
From May 2006, he sought support within the European Union legislature for a letter to FIFA demanding that the Iranian national football team be thrown out of the 2006 World Cup because of then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments about the Holocaust being a lie.
Prior to standing down in 2009, Heaton-Harris was the President of the Sports Intergroup, a group of approximately 40 MEPs who have an interest in sport and sporting issues.
In 2012, Heaton-Harris described himself as a "fierce Eurosceptic".
At the 1997 general election Heaton-Harris unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Leicester South, finishing second with 23.7% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Jim Marshall He again unsuccessfully contested the seat in the 2004 Leicester South by-election, finishing third with 19.7% of the vote behind the Liberal Democrat Parmjit Singh Gill and Labour's Peter Soulsby.
Chris Heaton-Harris was a member of the Conservative A-List and was selected to succeed Tim Boswell as candidate for the safe Conservative constituency of Daventry in June 2006. He was elected as MP for Daventry at the 2010 general election with a majority of 19,188 and 56.5% of the vote.
On 18 May 2024, he announced that he would not seek re-election as an MP at the 2024 general election.
In March 2012, Heaton-Harris was reported as being one of the Conservative MPs to have spoken critically of Party Co-Chairman Sayeeda Warsi at a meeting of the 1922 Committee, following Warsi's handling of Roger Helmer MEP's defection to UKIP.
At the 2015 general election, Heaton-Harris was re-elected with an increased vote share of 58.2% and an increased majority 21,059. At the snap 2017 general election he was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 63.7% and an increased majority of 21,734.
Heaton-Harris was appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, a whips office sinecure, on 15 July 2017. He was promoted to Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and Comptroller of the Household on 9 January 2018.