Chris Williamson

Christopher Williamson (born 16 September 1956) is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby North from 2010 to 2015 and again from 2017 to 2019.

After working as a craft apprentice for a year from 1972, Williamson then worked as a bricklayer for six years.

Williamson joined the Labour Party in 1976.

He continued his education at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University), where he obtained a professional social work qualification (a CQSW) in 1985.He was a social worker in Derby from 1983 to 1986 before working as a welfare rights officer.

Williamson was previously a local councillor in Derby, representing the Normanton ward from 1991 until 2011 and serving twice as leader of Derby City Council.

He became a councillor on Derby City Council in 1991.

Appointed Chair of Housing, he supported private finance initiative (PFI) projects.

While council leader, Williamson presided over a coalition with the Conservatives for two years after Labour lost its majority in 2006.

He was instrumental in setting up Holocaust Memorial Day events in the city.

He was Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government from October 2010 to October 2013.

In the 2010 general election, Williamson was elected for Derby North with a majority of 613 over the Conservative candidate.

Williamson supported Ed Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election.

In October 2010, Williamson became Shadow Fire and Emergency Services Minister within the Shadow Communities and Local Government team after just four months as an MP but, after a reshuffle of the shadow cabinet in 2013, was replaced by Lyn Brown.

He served as a member of the Communities and Local Government Committee between July and November 2010 and from November 2013 to March 2015.

In 2014, Williamson voted to support the Cameron coalition's 2011 military intervention in Libya and the British action against ISIS in Iraq.

He abstained on the Immigration Bill in 2014, following an instruction from Labour whips, saying later: "I have to say—if I'm being honest—I didn't study it enough or fully appreciate the implications."

Williamson was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.

At the 2015 general election, Williamson lost the Derby North seat to Amanda Solloway of the Conservative Party by 41 votes.

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn described Williamson in early 2016 as a "very great friend", saying that his defeat at the 2015 general election was "the worst result of that night".

During the 2017 general election campaign, he was described by the New Statesman as the "most pro-Jeremy Corbyn candidate in England's most marginal constituency".

Williamson said that his candidacy would be a "test case for Corbynism", and Corbyn campaigned for him.

Williamson regained his former seat from Amanda Solloway of the Conservatives with a majority of 2,015 votes.

On 3 July 2017, Williamson was appointed Shadow Fire and Emergency Services Minister.

Interviewed in 2018, he termed his approach then as "innovative pragmatism", seeking to "be as radical as we possibly could within the confines that we were subjected to by central government", arguing that "It was a bullshit scheme—I wouldn't have chosen it at all. It didn't give value for money. But what were we supposed to do as a local authority? We either [do it or] say we are not going to build these schools or we are not going to refurbish these unfit dwellings."

He became leader of the Labour Group on Derby City Council, serving as leader of the council on two separate occasions.

In April 2018, Williamson said that, while he was initially undetermined, he was "naive" to support the votes.

Williamson resigned this role on 11 January 2018.

A day earlier he said that council tax on the highest-value homes should be doubled.

The comment, which was not party policy and outside his remit, was made without the knowledge of Andrew Gwynne, the shadow secretary of state for communities and local government.

When the issue was raised, Williamson, rather than agree to confine his public statements to his own policy area, resigned.

He said: "I've taken this decision to bring me closer to the membership of our party and to allow me to work on a broader range of issues, from environmental policy to animal rights and local government."

In April 2018, Williamson voiced doubts that the Syrian government was responsible for the gas attack on Douma.

In August 2018, he said it was a "privilege" to hear a talk by a pro-Assad blogger, Vanessa Beeley.

In February 2019, Williamson was notified of a formal investigation and later suspended from the Labour Party for his comments about the party's response to criticism over its handling of allegations of antisemitism within the party.

After an investigation, Williamson was reinstated in June 2019 with a formal warning but was resuspended two days later when the party decided to review the disciplinary decision.

In October 2019, Williamson won a High Court challenge to the legality of the review of the disciplinary decision but similar charges had been made on 3 September 2019, involving a further suspension; the High Court ruled the Labour Party's disciplinary procedure with regard to these charges should run its course.

In November that year, Labour's National Executive Committee blocked Williamson from standing as a Labour candidate in the 2019 general election.

He resigned from the Labour Party and stood as an Independent, losing the seat and his deposit.

Williamson currently hosts the programme Palestine Declassified on the Iranian government-owned TV channel PressTV.

Born in Derby, Williamson attended the St. John Fisher Primary School in Alvaston, Castle Donington High School and St. Thomas More High School in Allenton.