DfT home > Press office > The ministerial team

Chris Mole MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport

Biography

Chris was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport on 9 June 2009.

Chris became Member of Parliament for Ipswich on 22 November 2001 and was re-elected in the General Election held in May 2005.

Chris was appointed in October 2008 to the position of Assistant Government Whip, having previously served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Local Government Minister John Healey MP.

Chris has also been asked to act as Parliamentary Assistant to the Regional Minister for the East of England Barbara Follett MP.

Chris has previously been a member of the highly influential Science and Technology Select Committee.

In the last parliament, Chris served as a member of the Select Committee that scrutinised the work of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Deregulation and Regulatory Affairs Select Committee and the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. Chris steered his Private Member's Bill onto the Statute Book where it became the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003.

He was Deputy Chair of EEDA, the regional development agency for the East of England, from 1998 and was Leader of Suffolk County Council, named Council of the Year 2001, until his election as Member of Parliament. Chris was first elected to Suffolk County Council in 1985 and represented central Ipswich for 18 years.

During his time as leader of the council Chris was known for his drive for financial efficiency which saved £55 million over eight years while delivering a massive increase locally in nursery places, sheltered housing with extra care and two £1.4 million Park and Ride schemes for Ipswich,

Chris holds a degree in electronics from the University of Kent and moved to Ipswich in 1981 to work at the BT Laboratories at Martlesham Heath near Ipswich.

Chris lives in East Ipswich with his wife and two sons.