Chris Marshall (British Politician)
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| Current Positions: | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2001- present) Member of Parliament for Birmingham East (1987-present) |
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| Term of Office: | 7 June 2001 to present |
| Predecessor: | Tony Blair |
| Successor: | Incumbent |
| Birthdate: | 18 June, 1952 |
| Place of Birth: | London, England, United Kingdom |
| Marital Status | Married to Anne Hacker |
| Profession | Politician, University Lecturer, Journalist |
| Political party | Conservative Party |
| Languages spoken | English German French Hindi |
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Christopher William Marshall (born 18 June, 1952) is the fifty second Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He took office on 7 June 2001 after winning the 2001 General Election in a landslide against the Labour government of Tony Blair. Prior to entering Number 10, Marshall had been Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Secretary of State for Administrative Affairs.
As Prime Minister, Marshall holds the positions of First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service.
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Early Life
Chris Marshall was born on 18 June, 1952 in Manchester. His father was an architect, and Marshall was educated in a Grammar School. Marshall managed to gain entry into the London School of Economics in 1970. He gratuated with a degree in economics, and took up a teaching position at Birmingham City University Business School.
Work
Marshall was a firm believer in free markets, and this enabled him to become close to the government of Enoch Powell, writing several papers to advise them on economic policy. Marshall remained with the university until 1982. After that, he became the economics editor of the magazine [i]Reform[/i]. In this time, Marshall became more involved in Conservative politics, joining the party in the constituency of Birmingham East. In 1987, he gained preselection for Birmingham East, and won the seat in the 1987 General Election.
Politics and Government
After two years in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Thatcher appointed Marshall Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State of Transport. During 1991, he was rumoured to have been important in ensuring that the Ministry of Transport did [i]not[/i] get the responsibility for developing an Integrated National Transport Policy. After the political ramifications of the policy became clear, Marshall was rewarded by being appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury. In this post, Marshall pushed for further free-trade, and deregulation of the British economy, and was partially successful. Marshall became popular with the party, however he was not favoured by the new Prime Minister, John Major. Marshall did not aid matters by writing articles criticising Major's policy of negotiating with the Provisional IRA. Marshall however had a good following in the party, and was appointed Secretary of State for Industry (to appease his supporters, who felt that Marshall should have a Cabinet post). This appointment is an irony as Marshall had advocated the abolition of this department before entering Parliament. Marshall as Secretary of State for Industry set about reducing the Department's activities. The Daily Mail called him "Mr. Cuts" as both of the budget submissions he made for his Department were smaller than the previous (the trend in all other departments was for increasing requests to the Exchequer). Major, in another attempt to marginalise Marshall shunted him off to a lesser Ministry, and another one that Marshall wanted abolished, the Department of Administrative Affairs.
