Whittingdale John

John WHITTINGDALE is a Member of the UK Parliament for Maldon in Essex. He is the Vice Chairman of the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He is a full member of the UK delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. He is also Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Groups for Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Lithuania, Vice Chairman of the APPGs for Hungary and Armenia and Chairman of the All Party Writers Group. He has been serving as a member of the Parliament since 1992 and most recently was a Chairman of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee for ten years until 2015. During his time as Chairman, the Committee carried out the inquiry into phone hacking by the News of the World which led to the summoning of Rupert and James Murdoch to give evidence. Other inquiries included those into FIFA and the World Cup, the future of the BBC, Gambling, Tourism, new media, Broadband, and preparations for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Mr. Whittingdale was named Inquisitor of the Year in the 2011 Spectator Parliamentary Awards. Following the 2015 General Election, he was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport in David Cameron’s Conservative Government and became a member of the Privy Council. During his time as Secretary of State, he oversaw the drafting of the new BBC Charter and also had policy responsibility for Telecommunications, Internet and New Media, Broadcasting, Press Regulation, Tourism, Gambling, Arts, Museums, Heritage, the Music, Film and Electronic Games industries and Sport. He stepped down from this position following the change of Prime Minister in July 2016. Mr. Whittingdale was a member of the Campaign Committee for the Vote Leave Campaign in the EU Referendum in 2016. He then became a member of the new Select Committee on Exiting the European Union and in 2017 he was elected Vice Chairman of the Committee. Mr. Whittingdale holds a degree in economics from Winchester College and University College, London.