Sir Charles Walker KBE

Charles is an award winning communicator who entered Parliament in 2005 and served for 19 years before leaving in May 2024.

Having held many senior positions within the House of Commons, and departing as one of its most experienced and long serving Select Committee Chairs, Charles is an expert in the UK’s legislature and its workings.

From 2020 to 2024, Charles led the Administration Select Committee, the body charged with oversight of the delivery of all House and legislative support services. During this time, Charles also served on the Board of the House of Commons, known as the Commission.

For the period 2012 to 2019, Charles Chaired the Procedure Select Committee from which he introduced a number of Parliamentary innovations and reforms, most notably the Petitions Committee; the Brexit triggered Secondary Legislation Sifting Committee; and the provisions for Proxy Voting for new parents.

In the above role, he also advised international delegations of legislators on how they could, through improving their rights as parliamentarians, better hold the executive branch of their government to account. The most effective legislatures have robust Standing Orders and strong support functions.

Charles’ other senior House positions include 14 years as a Legislative Bill Committee Chair; 15 years as a member of the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority; and 12 years serving as a member of the Liaison Committee. In his last two years, the House appointed Charles to its Standards & Privileges Committee.

Charles is a three time winner of a Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Award, two of which were for speech of the year.

In 2022, ‘The Rest is Politics’ podcast, presented by Alistair Campbell and Rory Stuart, chose Charles as one of its three politicians of the year, naming him alongside the Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP and the Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer MP. He was also Politico’s 2022 Backbencher of the Year.

Charles was a 2013 recipient of the Royal College of Psychiatrists President’s medal. He is a Council member of the UCL Constitution Unit. In 2019 he was made a KBE for political and public service.

  • "One of the most widely respected and liked MPs in the Commons"

    The i Paper

  • "You have been a wonderful servant of this House"

    Speaker of the House of Commons

  • "The words of Sir Charles Walker cut through"

    The Times

  • “Few MPs in the House of Commons have been as eloquent on either side”

    The Spectator

  • "Walker is a compelling orator"

    The Guardian

  • "Unusually for the Commons the speech united the parties in praise"

    The Telegraph