Geoffrey Cox

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(Charles) Geoffrey Cox, QC (born April 30, 1960) is a British Conservative politician and barrister. He is the Member of Parliament for Torridge and West Devon.

Geoffrey Cox was educated at King's College, Taunton and Downing College, Cambridge. In 1982 he became a barrister, and in 1992 founded Thomas More Chambers. During part of this time he was the standing counsel to the government of Mauritius. He took silk in 2003.

Geoffrey Cox has successfully led for the defence in a number of high profile cases, famously alleged corrupt Metropolitan Police detectives and Nicholas Van Hoogstraten, a property developer erroneously imprisoned for manslaughter.

In the 2001 general election, Cox unsuccessfully contested the marginal seat of Torridge and West Devon, being narrowly defeated by the Liberal Democrat John Burnett by just 1,194 votes. Cox successfully contested the seat again at the 2005 general election, beating Burnett's Liberal Democrat replacement, David Walter with a majority of 3,236. Cox made his maiden speech in Parliament on June 28, 2005 which was voted one of the four best maiden speeches of the year.

Cox's constituency has been reduced in 2006 as a result of Boundary Commission changes, analysis suggesting that it has become a more secure seat for the Conservatives.^{[citation needed]}