Andrew Mitchell

Andrew John Bower Mitchell (born 23 March 1956) is a British Conservative Party politician who was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sutton Coldfield in 2001. Previously, he was 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 until he resigned after losing the confidence of many of his colleagues following an alleged altercation with a police officer; referred to as "Plebgate".Mitchell was elected President of the Cambridge Union in 1978. Before university, he served for several months as a United Nations military peacekeeper in Cyprus. He has extensive pre-government experience of the developing world, and is the founder of Project Umubano, a Conservative Party social action project in Rwanda and Sierra Leone in central and west Africa, launched in 2007.Mitchell was returned as MP for Sutton Coldfield at the 2017 general election, with over 60% of the vote.