1. Christopher Murray Paul Huhne was born on 2 July 1954 and is a British energy and climate change consultant, and former journalist, business economist and politician who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Eastleigh from 2005 to 2013 and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2010 to 2012.
Chris Huhne advises companies on his particular interest in renewable technologies that can provide back up for intermittent energy sources like wind and solar.
Chris Huhne formerly wrote weekly columns for The Guardian, Independent on Sunday and Evening Standard.
Chris Huhne ultimately pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to eight months in prison, serving nine weeks before being released in May 2013.
Chris Huhne was reported in December 2023 to have settled with News Corporation over illegal information-gathering including phone-hacking.
Chris Huhne said that News targeted him because he had called for a reopening of the police investigation into phone-hacking and a judicial inquiry.
Chris Huhne was joined by other former Liberal Democrat ministers including Vince Cable and Norman Lamb, and claimed that News had not hacked him just for tabloid titillation but as an attempt to remove him as a critic and to spy on the Government in its intentions on whether to refer Murdoch's Sky bid to the competition authorities.
Chris Huhne was born in west London to businessman Peter Paul-Chris Huhne and actress Ann Murray.
Chris Huhne attended Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a Demy and editor of Isis.
At Oxford, Chris Huhne edited the student magazine Isis, served on the executive of the Oxford University Labour Club, and achieved a first-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Chris Huhne was active in student politics, supporting the Labour Party.
Chris Huhne was Brussels correspondent of The Economist from 1977 to 1980, and then economics editor, leader writer and columnist for The Guardian, and economics editor, assistant editor and columnist for The Independent on Sunday.
Chris Huhne was the business editor of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday during its investigations into Robert Maxwell's fraud on the Mirror group pension fund.
Chris Huhne started as an undercover freelance reporter in India during Indira Gandhi's emergency when western journalists had been expelled.
Chris Huhne worked for the Liverpool Echo and The Economist as its Brussels correspondent between 1977 and 1980.
Chris Huhne won both the junior and senior Wincott awards for financial journalist of the year in 1980 and 1989 respectively.
In June 1999 Chris Huhne was elected as a member of the European Parliament for South East England.
In 2005 Chris Huhne stood for election to the United Kingdom parliament representing the seat of Eastleigh in Hampshire.
Chris Huhne was a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, concerned with economic and financial policy including regulation of the financial sector.
Chris Huhne was first elected to represent Eastleigh at the general election on 5 May 2005, a constituency within the area for which he was previously the Member of the European Parliament.
The result in 2005 was close, with Chris Huhne winning with a majority of 568 over Conservative rival Conor Burns.
Chris Huhne was appointed as Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds on 5 February 2013, which vacated his seat and thus ended his tenure as Member of Parliament for Eastleigh.
Chris Huhne stood against Sir Menzies Campbell and Simon Hughes for the Liberal Democrat leadership following Charles Kennedy's resignation, formally launching his campaign on 13 January 2006.
Chris Huhne was able to carve out a distinctive position on the issue of green taxation.
Chris Huhne argued for a radical expansion of taxes on pollution, allowing for reductions in the income tax rate on the lowest paid.
Chris Huhne argued for a repeal of elements of the Labour government's anti-terrorism legislation, which many felt had undermined British civil liberties, and for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq within a year.
Chris Huhne was backed from early on by a number of bloggers, and gained much momentum from an internet campaign.
Campbell appointed him as the Liberal Democrat's environment spokesman in the subsequent frontbench reshuffle, in order for Chris Huhne to develop a viable programme to expand on his green campaign themes.
The document alleged that Chris Huhne had invested in companies that the document described as "unethical".
Chris Huhne was involved in developing his party's thoughts on climate change and the environment, including a consideration of the challenges and opportunities they create for British businesses.
Chris Huhne drew attention to what he said was the divergence between the Conservative Party's environmental rhetoric and its policies.
Chris Huhne was one of fourteen MPs forming an all-party parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism in the UK.
Chris Huhne is a critic of Israeli government policy in the Middle East, and strongly supports the creation of a separate Palestinian state.
Chris Huhne described the Israeli response in Lebanon to Hezbollah's rocket attacks as disproportionate and counter-productive, arguing that a strong Lebanese state is in Israel's long-term interest.
On 28 October 2007, Chris Huhne announced that he had secured the support of 10 of his 62 parliamentary colleagues for his formal nomination.
Chris Huhne claimed backing from at least twelve peers, four MSPs, and three Welsh Assembly members.
An unofficial check of the late papers showed Chris Huhne had enough votes among them to hand him victory.
When challenged about the document, Chris Huhne claimed that he had no knowledge of it and said he did not agree with the document title but agreed with the points within it.
In October 2008, as Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson, Chris Huhne led the Liberal Democrat response to the government's announcement of plans to expand the capacity to collect records of people using electronic communications.
In January 2009, Chris Huhne was credited with uncovering an instance of data loss of government information caused by a courier company losing a computer disc containing bank details of up to 2,000 public servants working for the British Council.
On 6 November 2007, Chris Huhne made remarks about the Speaker of the House of Commons on the BBC television programme Newsnight in which he claimed that the Speaker, Michael Martin, had fallen asleep during a speech by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Chris Huhne was an avid supporter of Professor David Nutt after he was dismissed by Home Secretary Alan Johnson as chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in November 2009.
Chris Huhne later claimed on a live Channel 4 news programme that he needed the trouser press to "look smart" for work.
Chris Huhne was one of sixteen ministers whose assets were held in a blind trust.
In government, Chris Huhne maintained a flexible approach on the subject of nuclear energy, advocating the three-pronged portfolio approach to energy: a commitment to nuclear energy; the development of more renewable energy, such as wind and sea power; and new carbon-capture technology to mitigate the damaging environmental effects of fossil fuel-fired power plants and industrial facilities.
On 9 December 2010, Chris Huhne represented the United Kingdom at COP16.
Chris Huhne described the deal as a "serious package" of measures but acknowledged that there was still more work to do prior to the next climate change meeting in Durban, South Africa, the following year.
Chris Huhne was an enthusiastic supporter of the AV campaign and attacked anti-AV campaigners such as his cabinet colleague, Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi.
On 3 February 2012, Chris Huhne resigned from the Cabinet when he was charged with perverting the course of justice over a 2003 speeding case.
Chris Huhne denied the charge until the trial began on 4 February 2013 when he changed his plea to guilty, resigned as a member of Parliament, and left the Privy Council.
Chris Huhne served nine weeks of this sentence at HMP Leyhill in Gloucestershire before he was released.
On 5 February 2013 Chris Huhne resigned as an MP following his plea of guilty to perverting the course of justice.
Chris Huhne has been an adviser and consultant on energy and climate change since his resignation from parliament.
Chris Huhne was a consultant for Nationwide Energy Services, an energy saving company.
Until 2014 Chris Huhne was a weekly columnist for The Guardian.
Chris Huhne has provided consultancy services for start-ups in his particular specialism of despatchable renewables.
Chris Huhne became chair of ADBA in June 2022, and is senior adviser to the World Biogas Association.
In February 2010 Chris Huhne was played by Alan Parnaby in the television film On Expenses and in 2015 by Rob Vowles in television film Coalition.
Chris Huhne married Greek-born economist Vicky Pryce in 1984 shortly after she divorced her first husband, with whom she had two daughters.
In June 2010, Chris Huhne admitted that he had been involved in a relationship with Carina Trimingham and stated that he had decided to leave his wife to be with her.
Trimingham had worked on Chris Huhne's campaigns for the Liberal Democrat leadership in 2006 and 2007 and was a paid staff member on his 2010 general-election campaign.
Chris Huhne was press officer for Brian Paddick during the 2008 Mayor of London election, and was campaigns director at the Electoral Reform Society.
Apart from climate change, "Electoral reform" is among the personal interests that Chris Huhne cites on his biography on the official Liberal Democrats website.
Chris Huhne describes his other interests as "European single currency, economics, Third World debt and development, Europe".
Chris Huhne is or was a member of the European Movement, Green Lib Dems, Association of Liberal Democrat Trade Unionists and the National Union of Journalists.
Chris Huhne's first was Debt and Danger, an analysis of the 1984 Third World debt crisis co-written with Lord Lever of Manchester, the former Labour cabinet minister.
Chris Huhne was a contributor to The Orange Book, in which he advocates reforms to the United Nations and international governance.
Chris Huhne was critical of the most controversial article in the Orange Book, in which David Laws proposed an insurance-based National Health Service.
Chris Huhne has written articles for Financial Times, The Guardian, The Independent and New Statesman.
In May 2011 Chris Huhne's estranged wife Vicky Pryce approached a reporter for The Mail on Sunday with a claim that Chris Huhne had "pressurised people to take his driving licence penalty points" on his behalf in 2003.
Chris Huhne denied the allegations of perverting the course of justice.
Essex Police sent initial papers to the Crown Prosecution Service regarding the allegations and Chris Huhne exercised his right to remain silent in response to police questions in May On 25 June 2011, Essex Police said that a judge at the Crown Court at Chelmsford had granted them a court order to take possession of a recording from The Sunday Times in which the ex-couple apparently discussed the case.
At a plea and case management hearing on 1 June 2012, Chris Huhne announced his intention to apply to the court to have the charge dismissed.
On 28 January 2013, Chris Huhne was arraigned and pleaded "not guilty" to the indictment.
Chris Huhne was remanded on unconditional bail until sentencing at a date to be notified.
Chris Huhne was later convicted, sentenced to 16 months in prison and disbarred.
Chris Huhne started serving his sentence in HM Prison Wandsworth but was reportedly transferred to HM Prison Leyhill in Gloucestershire.