Michael Bates, Baron Bates

British politician (born 1961)

Michael Walton Bates, Baron Bates (born 26 May 1961) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom serving in the House of Lords since 2008 having previously represented the constituency of Langbaurgh in the House of Commons from 1992 to 1997. From 2014 to 2015, he was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Criminal Information at the Home Office. In May 2015 he was appointed Minister of State in the Home Office. In March 2016, he resigned as Minister of State in order to undertake a 2000 mile solo walk from Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro to raise awareness for the Olympic truce. He returned to government as a Minister of State in the Department for International Development in October 2016. He offered his resignation on 31 January 2018 for showing "discourtesy" after arriving one minute late for a debate in the chamber but it was not accepted by the Prime Minister. In April 2019, Bates submitted his second resignation from the position and vacated his role as Minister of State.

Born in Gateshead in 1961, Bates attended Heathfield Senior High School and Gateshead College. In 1987, he was part of a team who bid successfully for a City Technology College to be located in Gateshead and in 1990, Emmanuel College was formally opened and is one of only three remaining CTCs in England not to convert into academies. He also has an MBA from Wadham College, Oxford.

Bates joined the Conservative Party in Gateshead in 1979, later becoming Chairman of Gateshead Conservative Association. He was a founder member of Gateshead Young Conservatives, Chairman of Northern Area Young Conservatives and a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Young Conservatives from 1984 to 1989. He contested several elections to Gateshead Borough Council for the Conservative Party between 1983 and 1989. At the 1987 general election, he stood for parliament for the first time, contesting the Tyne Bridge parliamentary constituency, which was retained by the Labour Party. Bates contested the November 1991 by election in Langbaurgh caused by the death of Conservative MP Richard Holt. He lost the election to Labour's Ashok Kumar.

Five months after his defeat in the by election, a general election was held. Bates was elected for Langbaurgh, defeating Kumar. Bates was appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Nicholas Scott, Minister of State at the Department of Social Security in October, 1992. In November 1993, he voted against a government proposal to increase MP's salaries at a time when other public sector employees were receiving no increase and as a result was forced to resign his junior post in the government as a ministerial aide. In May 1994, he returned to the government as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir John Wheeler, Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office and two months later was appointed to his first full ministerial role as an Assistant Government whip. In 1995, he was promoted to be a Government Whip (Lord Commissioner of the Treasury), and in 1996 was appointed Paymaster General in the Cabinet Office and Sponsor Minister for the North East of England, posts which he held until May 1997.

As the Langbaurgh constituency was abolished for the 1997 general election, Bates was selected as the candidate for the seat of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, which contained most of the wards from Langbaurgh, but he lost to Ashok Kumar in the third contest between the two men in less than six years. After losing the election, Bates attended Wadham College, Oxford and Saïd Business School, graduating from Oxford University in 1998 with a master's degree in Business Administration (MBA). Bates served as a member of SaÏd Business School's Business Advisory Forum from 1999 until 2011. Between 1998 and 2005, Bates served as Director of Consultancy & Research at Oxford Analytica. Between 2006 and 2008, Bates researched ethics and foreign policy for a doctorate at Durham University's School of Government and International Affairs, and served as a non resident tutor at St John's College.

In 2006, Bates was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party with specific responsibility for the North of England. Bates served as a deputy to William Hague in his role as Chairman of the Northern Board of the Conservative Party and Head of Campaign North.

Bates married Carole (née Whitfield) in 1983; the couple had two sons, Matthew (born 1987) and Alex (born 1990), but divorced in 2008. Bates married Xuelin (née Li) in 2012. He currently lives in London and the North East of England.

He was sworn of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 14 May 2015 at Buckingham Palace. This gave him the Honorific Prefix The Right Honourable and the Post Nominal Letters "PC" for Life.