Chris Loder
MP
Chris Loder in 2020
Member of Parliament
for West Dorset
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byOliver Letwin
Majority14,106 (23.2%)
Personal details
Born (1981-09-05) 5 September 1981 (age 42)
Sherborne, Dorset, England[1]
Political partyConservative
OccupationPolitician

Christopher Lionel John Loder[2] (born 5 September 1981)[3] is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Dorset since the 2019 general election.[4] A member of the Conservative Party, he succeeded Sir Oliver Letwin, who was first elected as a Conservative in 1997 but sat as an independent after having the whip removed in September 2019 and did not stand for reelection. The West Dorset constituency can be considered a safe seat, having only ever elected Conservative MPs.

Early life

Loder was born in Sherborne in September 1981. He grew up near Folke in Dorset on his parents' farm and attended The Gryphon School in Sherborne. Aged 18, he joined South West Trains as a train guard. He stayed in the rail industry, rising to becoming head of new trains for South Western Railway,[5] until his election to Parliament in 2019.[1]

Political career

Loder became parish clerk for Bishops Caundle in 1998, and was awarded the young person's merit award for commitment to the local community.[1] He was elected to West Dorset District Council to represent the ward of Cam Vale in a 2013 by-election. The district was subject to a boundary review and Loder was not re-elected in 2015 when the seat became a two-member ward. Loder was chairman of West Dorset Conservatives for more than three years until August 2019.

He is a member of the Common Sense Group which represents the socially conservative wing of the Conservative Party.[6][7] Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties now in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Loder was among the signatories of a letter to The Daily Telegraph in November 2020 from the Common Sense Group. The letter accused the National Trust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke agenda'".[8][9]

Personal life

One of Loder's hobbies is bell ringing at local churches in Dorset.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c "About Chris Loder". Conservative Party (UK). Archived from the original on 29 January 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Members Sworn". Hansard.parliament.uk. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  3. ^ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  4. ^ "Dorset West Parliamentary Constituency results". BBC News. 12 December 2019.
  5. ^ Lea, Martin (1 October 2019). "Chris Loder new Conservative Parliamentary candidate for West Dorset". Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  6. ^ Steerpike. "Tories unveil anti-woke manifesto | The Spectator". www.spectator.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  7. ^ Maddox, David; S, James (8 May 2021). "Common Sense book launched by MPs to take on wokeism in British culture war". Daily Express. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  8. ^ "Britain's heroes". Letter to the Daily Telegraph. 9 November 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.((cite press release)): CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ^ "Letter to the Telegraph". Sir Edward Leigh. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  10. ^ "Bell ringing in Dorset". Twitter.com. 27 October 2019.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom Preceded byOliver Letwin Member of Parliamentfor West Dorset 2019–present Incumbent
Authority control databases: People
Conservative Members of Parliament in the South West of England
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