Chris Huhne

Chris Huhne
Huhne in 2011
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
In office 12 May 2010 – 3 February 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Ed Miliband
Succeeded by	Ed Davey
Liberal Democrat frontbench positions Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson In office 20 December 2007 – 12 May 2010 Leader Nick Clegg Preceded by Nick Clegg Succeeded by Lynne Featherstone (2015) Liberal Democrat Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Spokesman In office 3 March 2006 – 19 December 2007 Leader Menzies Campbell Vince Cable (Acting) Preceded by Norman Baker Succeeded by Steve Webb Liberal Democrat Deputy Treasury Spokesman In office 16 May 2005 – 3 March 2006 Leader Charles Kennedy Preceded by David Laws Succeeded by Julia Goldsworthy
Member of Parliament for Eastleigh
In office 5 May 2005 – 5 February 2013
Preceded by	David Chidgey
Succeeded by	Mike Thornton
Member of the European Parliament for South East England
In office 10 June 1999 – 12 May 2005
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Sharon Bowles
Personal details
Born	Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne (1954-07-02) 2 July 1954 (age 70) London, England
Political party	Labour Party (before 1981) Social Democratic Party (1981–1988) Liberal Democrats (1988–2013)[1] Independent (since 2013)
Spouse	Vicky Pryce ​ ​ (m. 1984; div. 2011)​
Domestic partner	Carina Trimingham (2010–present)
Children	3
Alma mater	Magdalen College, Oxford

Christopher Murray Paul Huhne (born 2 July 1954) 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.^[2][3][4] He is currently chair of the UK green gas association – the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association – and senior adviser to the World Biogas Association. He also advises companies on his particular interest in renewable technologies that can provide back up for intermittent energy sources like wind and solar.

He formerly wrote weekly columns for The Guardian, Independent on Sunday and Evening Standard. From 1994 to 1999, he built up a business advising on the creditworthiness of countries which is now the sovereign ratings division of one of the three large global ratings agencies, Fitch Ratings.

Huhne had twice stood unsuccessfully for election as Leader of the Liberal Democrats; in 2006 he came second to Sir Menzies Campbell and in 2007 he narrowly lost to Nick Clegg.^[5][6] His political career ended with resignation in February 2013, when he was (with his ex-wife) convicted of perverting the course of justice in relation to speeding offences. He ultimately pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to eight months in prison, serving nine weeks before being released in May 2013.

Huhne was reported in December 2023 to have settled with News Corporation (Rupert Murdoch's newspaper holding company that owned the main newspapers responsible for bringing him down, the Sun, News of the World and Sunday Times) over illegal information-gathering including phone-hacking. Huhne received six-figure damages and his legal costs. Huhne said that News targeted him because he had called for a reopening of the police investigation into phone-hacking (that led to the conviction of Andy Coulson, editor of the News of the World) and a judicial inquiry (eventually the Leveson Inquiry).^[7]

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.