Chris Pond
British politician (born 1952)
title: "Chris Pond" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["labour-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "uk-mps-1997–2001", "uk-mps-2001–2005", "alumni-of-the-university-of-sussex", "people-associated-with-the-open-university", "1952-births", "living-people"] description: "British politician (born 1952)" topic_path: "society/education" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Pond" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary British politician (born 1952) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Chris Pond |
| office | Member of Parliament |
| for Gravesham | |
| term_start | 1 May 1997 |
| term_end | 11 April 2005 |
| predecessor | Jacques Arnold |
| successor | Adam Holloway |
| birth_date | |
| nationality | British |
| party | Labour Party |
| spouse | Lorraine Pond |
| :: |
|honorific-prefix = |name = Chris Pond |honorific-suffix = |image = |office = Member of Parliament for Gravesham |parliament = |majority = |term_start = 1 May 1997 |term_end = 11 April 2005 |predecessor = Jacques Arnold |successor = Adam Holloway |birth_date = |birth_place = |death_date = |death_place = |restingplace = |birthname = |nationality = British |party = Labour Party |otherparty = |spouse = Lorraine Pond |relations = |children = |residence = |alma_mater = |occupation = |profession = |cabinet = |committees = |portfolio = |religion = |signature = |website =
Christopher Richard Pond (born 25 September 1952) is a former Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Gravesham in Kent, from 1997 to 2005.
Early life
He went to the Minchenden School (became comprehensive in 1967, and was merged into the Broomfield School in 1984) in Southgate, London. At the University of Sussex, he gained a BA in economics in 1974.
From 1974 to 1975, he was a research assistant in Economics at Birkbeck College.{{cite news |title = Candidate: Chris Pond |url = https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/vote2001/candidates/candidates/2/28006.stm |work = BBC News: Vote 2001 |access-date=10 March 2009
Parliamentary career
At the 1987 general election, Pond unsuccessfully contested the Welwyn Hatfield constituency.{{cite web |title = UK General Election results June 1987 |url = http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge87/i21.htm |work = Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources |accessdate = 10 March 2009 |archive-date = 25 September 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060925081559/http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge87/i21.htm |url-status = dead
He won the Gravesham seat at the 1997 general election, beating the sitting Conservative Party MP, Jacques Arnold. He was re-elected at the 2001 general election, and served as a member of the Social Security Select Committee, Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Treasury and then minister in the Department for Work and Pensions.
Pond introduced a Private Members Bill, the Employment of Children Bill in 1998, which subsequently led to greater protection for children at work. He successfully campaigned with the Marchioness Action Group for a Public Inquiry into the sinking of the Marchioness, for greater safety measures and for the introduction of lifeboats on the Thames. At the May 2005 general election, he lost his seat in Parliament to the Conservative Party candidate, Adam Holloway,{{cite news |title = Election 2005: Labour restrict their Kent losses |url = https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/vote_2005/england/4519375.stm |date = 6 May 2005 |work = BBC News |access-date=10 March 2009
In February 2005, Pond was arrested by the police after an alleged incident of criminal damage. He had removed a sign illegally threatening to clamp his heavily pregnant wife's car and placed it on the door of a neighbour who he believed had been responsible, leaving traces of glue. After the decision whether to prosecute him was referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions and to the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, Pond received a police caution.
After being defeated in the 2005 election, Pond was appointed as Chief Executive of The National Council for One Parent Families, which subsequently merged to become Gingerbread. In 2007 he became Director of Financial Capability at the Financial Services Authority.{{cite web |title = Chris Pond appointed as Director of Financial Capability for the FSA |date = 3 October 2007 |url = http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2007/107.shtml |publisher = Financial Services Authority |accessdate = 10 March 2009 |archive-date = 7 March 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090307153259/http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2007/107.shtml |url-status = dead |title=Former Labour minister given key FSA role |author=Tony Bonsignore |date=3 October 2007 |url=http://www.citywire.co.uk/adviser/-/news/other/content.aspx?ID=287730 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130419211136/http://www.citywire.co.uk/adviser/-/news/other/content.aspx?ID=287730 |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 April 2013 |work=CityWire |accessdate=10 March 2009
He is now Chairman of the Lending Standards Board (a body established to promote good practice in lending to consumers and small businesses) and of the Equity Release Council Standards Board. He also serves as vice-chair of the independent Financial Inclusion Commission, which he helped establish in 2014. He also serves as Chair of The Money Charity and of the Caxton Foundation (a Department of Health-funded charity to provide support for those infected with Hepatitis-C following NHS treatment) and is an independent director of Cape Claims Services, an asbestos compensation scheme which has paid out over £30 million in compensation in its 10 years of existence. He is trustee of GambleAware and Z2K, a charity established to combat poverty and inequality in London. He is also a member of the Treasury Fintech Delivery Panel.
Personal life
He married Carole Tongue in 1990. They have one daughter, but divorced in 1999. He is now married to Lorraine (former councillor and mayor of Tower Hamlets). They have a daughter aged 17 and a son aged 14.
Chris has run 19 marathons, eleven of them in London, raising thousands for charity. He ran the London Marathon again in April 2009 in support of Gingerbread (the charity for lone parents), Macmillan Cancer Care and United Response (the learning disability and mental health charity) and in 2011 in support of Prostate Cancer UK.
Notes
References
- "Ask Aristotle: Chris Pond". The Guardian website. link
- "As one door closes…". Alison Benjamin. (12 October 2005). The Guardian. link
- Joanna Bale. (21 March 2005). "Parking row MP escapes court action". The Times.
- Mark Townsend and Gaby Hinsliff. (20 March 2005). "Minister comes unstuck over 'glue gate'". The Observer.
- (3 October 2007). "Biography: Chris Pond". Financial Services Authority.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::