Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP was previously the Shadow Foreign Secretary and Deputy Foreign Secretary and the Minister of State for International Development and Africa in the Foreign Office. 

Andrew was Secretary of State for International Development in the British Government from May 2010 until he became Government Chief Whip in September 2012.  

Prior to joining the cabinet in 2010, he held junior ministerial positions in Government (1992-1997) and in opposition (2003-2010). He has been a Member of Parliament since 1987 and the Member for Royal Sutton Coldfield since 2001. 

In 2017 he was appointed as a Senior Adviser to the African Development Bank (AfDB). Previously he served in the Army (Royal Tank Regiment) as a UN Peacekeeper before joining the international Investment Bank, Lazard where he worked on and off for 30 years. He was a Director of Lazard Asia and Lazard India as well as of Lazard London. 

He is a fellow at Cambridge University, at The Centre of Resilience and Sustainable Development (CRSD); was previously a visiting Fellow at Harvard University; and is an Honorary Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham.  

His award-winning autobiography ‘’ Beyond a Fringe: Tales from a reformed Establishment lackey’’ - was published in 2022. 

Andrew was educated at Rugby School and Cambridge University, where he was elected President of the Cambridge Union.