Mitchell served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2010 to 2012 and then briefly as Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons in late 2012.

He served in the second Major government as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 1994 to 1995 and as a junior minister at the Department of Social Security from 1995 to 1997.

Amid public pressure due to the Plebgate scandal, Mitchell resigned from the government the following month, and returned to the backbenches.

[8] After unsuccessfully contesting Sunderland South at the 1983 general election, Mitchell entered Parliament in 1987 at the age of 31 as MP for Gedling, Nottinghamshire, serving in the House of Commons concurrently with his father until 1997.

[10][11] The volunteers focused on five areas: health, education, justice, the private sector, and a community centre construction project.

[13] It was during one of these trips that Mitchell and his aides are reported to have verbally abused one of the volunteers, a student journalist who had circulated a draft newspaper article she had written stressing the positives of the project, but also pointing out some problems with its operation.

[14][15] Mitchell expressed support for the idea of a televised appeal for Gaza on the BBC in 2009, a subject which had aroused much controversy on both sides of the argument.

He said that, while the matter was ultimately for the BBC to decide, "We believe that they should allow the broadcast to proceed so that the British public, who have proved themselves so generous during recent emergencies in the Congo and Burma, can make their own judgement on the validity of the appeal".

[16] Following the resignation of Baroness Warsi during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, Mitchell criticised repeated Israeli attacks on UN schools and called for an arms embargo, warning that the misery suffered by an "enormous number of innocent people" was poisoning attitudes.

[17] Following the general election and formation of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition in May 2010, he became Secretary of State for International Development.

The National Transitional Council (NTC) in Benghazi has good informal connections with security officials in Tripoli and has told them: 'You've got a job, please help us keep stability'."

"[20] Mitchell accepted that a smaller aid budget might have meant fewer cuts elsewhere, but insisted that development projects also helped protect Britain.

"[21] On 1 July 2010, at the end of a debate on global poverty in the House of Commons,[22][23] the Minister of State for International Development, Alan Duncan, quoted the journalist Jon Snow as having said, "Andrew Mitchell is unquestionably the best prepared Secretary of State – nobody has waited longer in the wings and everyone in the sector knows of his commitment to the sector".

[27][28] Mitchell's successor stopped further aid payments as Rwanda had breached agreements,[29] and following the publication of a United Nations Security Council investigators' report which provided evidence that Rwanda had supplied guns, money and recruits to the rebels contrary to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1807,[30] and engaged directly in combat to help the rebels capture territory.

[31] The International Development Select Committee launched an inquiry into the suspending, then subsequent authorisation, of budget support to Rwanda.

[40] Following Wallis' conviction, Mitchell received a public apology from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Bernard Hogan-Howe, and fellow MPs called for him to be reappointed to the cabinet.

In consequence, Mitchell lost the libel cases against both The Sun and PC Rowland and became liable for both parties' costs, which were estimated at £2m.

[43] On 30 January 2015, court papers revealed that News Group newspapers offered a deal on 19 September 2014 which would have allowed Mitchell to avoid liability for the legal costs incurred by the media organisation up to that date.

[45][46] Speaking in January 2018, to the Jesus College, Cambridge, Debating Society, Mitchell expressed the belief that Labour would win the next general election and Jeremy Corbyn would become the next prime minister.

Mitchell explained that this was a prospect he regarded with apprehension, and speculated that under a Labour Government borrowing and taxation would increase drastically.

[48] On 31 January 2022, after Boris Johnson issued a statement to the house about the interim report by Sue Gray, into the Partygate scandal, Mitchell announced that he no longer supported the Prime Minister.

[56] In 2002, Mitchell led the successful Keep Justice Local campaign across his constituency of Sutton Coldfield to safeguard the 50-year-old Magistrates' Court from closure.

[59] In 1994, as MP for Gedling, Mitchell voted in the House of Commons for the restoration of the death penalty; the motion was defeated 383–186.

[60] Between 2001 and 2010, as MP for Sutton Coldfield, his House of Commons voting record shows that he voted for limiting climate change, civil partnerships for gay couples, greater autonomy for schools, a UK referendum on the EU Lisbon Treaty, replacement of Trident, the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent Iraq investigation, and limiting pollution from civil aviation.

During the same period, he voted against ID cards, the closure of post offices, both 42 days' and 90 days' detention without charge or trial, the DNA database, closer EU integration, the relaxation of gambling laws, Section 28 (although in 1988 he had voted in favour),[61] employment discrimination against gay people, the legalisation of recreational drugs, a fully elected House of Lords, and a ban on fox hunting.

[65] An article in The Sunday Times newspaper on 30 October 2010, quoted by The Guardian newspaper the following day, claimed that Mitchell had pressured the Foreign Office and colleagues to lobby Ghana (successfully) for the lifting of a trading ban on a cocoa company, Armajaro, which had been a repeated donor to Mitchell's parliamentary office and also a donor to the Conservative Party.

[68] According to The Daily Telegraph, a subsidiary of DV3 purchased the lease on the Dickins & Jones department store building in central London for £65.1 million and sold it a month later to a partnership controlled by DV3 for £65,100, thus avoiding stamp duty.

[75] Mitchell is a trustee of International Inspiration – a charity that promotes access to sport, play and physical exercise in low and middle income countries around the world.