Kit Malthouse

Christopher Laurie Malthouse (born 27 October 1966), known as Kit Malthouse, is an English Conservative Party politician, businessman and occasional writer. He was elected in the May 2015 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Hampshire. A former Deputy Mayor of London for Business and Enterprise, a member of the London Assembly representing the West Central constituency, which encompasses the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He was formerly Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority and the first Statutory Deputy Mayor for Policing.
A former city councillor and Deputy Leader of Westminster City Council, London. He is a member of the Conservative Party.

Malthouse was born in the Aigburth area of Liverpool, and educated at Sudley County Primary and Liverpool College. He studied Politics and Economics at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Malthouse trained to be a chartered accountant at Touche Ross & Company (now Deloitte), qualifying in 2004. He then left and worked as Finance Director of the Cannock Group. He led the management buyout of the part of that group called County Holdings and is now chairman of the company.

Malthouse's first run for office was to represent the constituency of Liverpool Wavertree in the 1997 general election. The seat, which had been recreated after being abolished following the 1979 general election, was easily won by Labour candidate Jane Kennedy, who took 29,592 votes (64.4%). Malthouse came third with 4,944 votes (10.8%), behind Liberal Democrat candidate Richard C. Kemp.

Malthouse was elected to Westminster council in May 1998, representing St George's ward in the Pimlico area of central London. Following boundary changes, he was re-elected in May 2002 for Warwick ward, which is also in Pimlico.

Malthouse was appointed as Chief Whip of the Conservative Group, and following a change of leader to Sir Simon Milton, he was appointed Chairman of the Social Services Committee. Two years later, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Council and became Cabinet Member for Finance.

He retired from Westminster City Council at the May 2006 local elections.

Campaign to outlaw advertising for prostitution

Malthouse has campaigned for laws to outlaw the use of telephone booths by prostitutes to advertise their services. He states that this practice is detrimental towards the appearance of the city and disturbing for residents and families, and that this advertising fuels gang controlled prostitution and the trafficking of women across Europe. Malthouse also publicized the use of mobile phones for soliciting prostitution. Following this action, three mobile phone companies started barring numbers, possibly in response to the resulting negative publicity.

Census methodology

Malthouse challenged the results of the 2001 population census, which he said seriously underestimated the population of the City of Westminster. Following a two-year battle with the Office for National Statistics, the City of Westminster population was revised upwards by 10%. and a review of future census methodology was commissioned.

Congestion charging

Malthouse argued against the introduction of the London congestion charge, opposing it on the grounds that the idea should not be first introduced in the most populous city in England, and that London was already one of the most expensive cities to live in in the world. He also suggested that the purpose of the scheme was to address Transport for London's budgetary shortfall.

Shirley Porter

As Deputy Leader of Westminster Council, Malthouse was responsible for agreeing to a £12.3 million settlement with Shirley Porter over the £27 million surcharge, eventually raising to £42 million in costs and interest, imposed on her as a result of the Homes for Votes gerrymandering fraud scandal.

On 26 March 2007, he was selected as the Conservative candidate for the London Assembly seat of West Central. The Assembly elections took place on 1 May 2008, and Malthouse received 53% of the vote. He was appointed Deputy Mayor for Policing two days later.

Malthouse was appointed Deputy Mayor of London, Policing by London Mayor Boris Johnson with effect from 6 May 2008. In October 2008 he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority by Johnson.

Malthouse was a member of the board of the Association of Police Authorities, and the London Regional Resilience Forum. He also sits on the Ministerial Steering Group of the London Criminal Justice Partnership.

In October 2009 Malthouse was involved in the events leading to the resignation of Sir Ian Blair, then Metropolitan Police Commissioner. During his first few months in office he was also responsible for a wholesale change of the members of the Police Authority and a restructure of the organisation. Malthouse has introduced Met Forward, the Authority’s strategic mission for London’s police.Alongside the Mayor of London and the then Deputy Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, Malthouse released ‘Time for Action’ on 3 November 2008 in response to escalating concerns about youth violence in London.

Phone hacking

In early 2012, Malthouse was urged to resign for reportedly saying too many police resources were allocated to the investigation into press phone hacking.

Dangerous dogs

Malthouse has campaigned against dangerous dogs across London. He hosted a citywide summit in November 2009 to raise the profile of weapons and dangerous dogs as a serious issue in London. He has also campaigned for changes to the dangerous dogs legislation to introduce tougher punishments and is working with the CPS to reduce the long delays in the court process to reduce the kenneling costs.

Violence against women

Malthouse continues to campaign against the presence of prostitution cards in telephone kiosks across London. He has also devised the 2010 program 'The Way Forward – a plan for London to tackle violence against women and girls'. One of the key goals of The Way Forward is to quadruple Rape Crisis provision in the capital.

Hunting foxes with dogs

While Deputy Mayor of London, Malthouse expressed concerns about the growing numbers of foxes and claimed: "People are afraid to let their small children play outside because of them. They are more and more worried about the number of foxes as numbers continue to grow." Following his election to Parliament, he stated that he would vote to repeal the Hunting Act 2004, which bans the hunting of foxes with dogs.

In May 2012 Malthouse was appointed as London's first Deputy Mayor for Business & Enterprise, with the task of increasing the number of Londoners in employment, and leading economic and business policy for City Hall. Malthouse was also appointed co-chair of the London Enterprise Partnership.

Malthouse is a board member of TheCityUK and HyER, the European Association for Hydrogen and fuel cells and Electro-mobility, and Chair of Hydrogen London. Malthouse is also a board member of London & Partners, the promotional body for the capital.

On 4 July 2014 it was announced that Malthouse would be selected as the Conservative candidate in the 2015 general election for the North West Hampshire constituency. The seat had been occupied by Sir George Young since 1997. Sir George announced in 2013 that he would retire in 2015. In March 2015 Malthouse resigned his position as Deputy Mayor to concentrate on his parliamentary campaign. He won his seat in North West Hampshire with a majority of 23,943, becoming the third MP in the constituency.

In March 2016, Malthouse was asked by Andover's MS Society to step down from his role as a patron. The charity felt he was no longer suitable for the role as he had recently voted to cut ESA to the same level as JSA for those in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG).