Christopher Heaton-Harris (born 28 November 1967) is an English politician who has served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 6 September 2022. Early life and education Born on 28 November 1967, Heaton-Harris attended the Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames. He attended Wolverhampton Polytechnic, which in 1992 became the University of Wolverhampton. He worked for the family business at New Covent Garden Market, before taking over from his father running What4 Ltd for eleven years. At the 1997 general election he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Leicester South. He again unsuccessfully contested the seat in the 2004 Leicester South by-election. European Parliament Heaton-Harris was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 as MEP for the East Midlands, and was re-elected in 2004. He was the Chief Whip of the Conservatives in the European Parliament from 2001 to March 2004. Heaton-Harris sat on the Internal Market Committee, responsible for "co-ordination at Community level of national legislation in the sphere of the internal market and of the customs union", as well as the Central America Delegation and the Bulgaria Delegation. He was a founding member of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, a cross-national, cross-party group of MEPs that campaigns for reforms within the parliament. Its manifesto includes creating one seat for the parliament (in Brussels), cleaning up the system for MEPs' expenses, and improving debate within the parliament. Heaton-Harris was responsible for bringing the case of Marta Andreasen, the European Commission's Chief Accountant, to public attention in August 2002 and has been involved in fighting fraud, mismanagement and waste within the European Commission and other European institutions. Prior to standing down in 2009, Heaton-Harris was the President of the Sports Intergroup, a group of approximately 40 MEPs who have an interest in sport and sporting issues. From May 2006, he sought support within the European Union legislature for a letter to FIFA demanding that the Iranian national football team be thrown out of the 2006 World Cup because of then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments about the Holocaust being a lie. In 2012, Heaton-Harris described himself as a "fierce Eurosceptic". Member of UK Parliament Backbencher Chris Heaton-Harris was a member of the Conservative A-List and was selected to succeed Tim Boswell as candidate for the safe Conservative constituency of Daventry in June 2006. He won the seat at the 2010 general election with a majority of 19,188. In March 2012,