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 a slightly reduced majority. 2Early life and career Mitchell was born at Hampstead in north London, the son of Sir David Mitchell, a former Conservative MP and Government Minister. He was educated at Rugby School, where the self-confessed "stern disciplinarian" earned the nickname "Thrasher".In February 1975, he joined the Royal Tank Regiment as a second lieutenant on a Short Service Limited Commission (a commission designed for teenagers applying to Oxford or Cambridge University after leaving the sixth form), spending time in Cyprus where his unit was carrying out peacekeeping duties. In October of that year, he transferred to the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve. He resigned his commission on 9 February 1977.He went to the University of Cambridge, where he read History at Jesus College. He was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association in the Michaelmas Term of 197