Andrew Mitchell, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for International Development
Andrew John Bower Mitchell (born 23 March 1956) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Sutton Coldfield since 2001. A member of the Conservative Party, Mitchell is the son of Sir David Mitchell, who was a Conservative MP for 33 years. Mitchell was previously 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 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 both the 2017 and 2019 general elections with over 60% of the vote.