Christopher Michael Leslie (born 28 June 1972) is a British business executive and former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and Nottingham East from 2010 to 2019.

In February 2019, Leslie left Labour alongside six other MPs in protest at the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn to form The Independent Group, later Change UK.

Leslie was born in Keighley, West Riding of Yorkshire, and attended Bingley Grammar School before becoming a student at the University of Leeds, graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Parliamentary Studies.

[12] Leslie supported Yvette Cooper in the 2015 Labour leadership election, and was critical of the economic policies of Jeremy Corbyn, calling them "starry-eyed, hard left".

[15] In June 2018 Leslie published a pamphlet through the Social Market Foundation, where he is a member of the Policy Advisory Board,[16] entitled Centre Ground: Six Values of Mainstream Britain.

[17] In August the same year The Guardian reported that "many saw the document as laying the intellectual groundwork for a future new [political] party,"[18] however Leslie denied this.

[22] On 18 February 2019, Leslie and six other MPs (Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey) quit Labour in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership to form The Independent Group, later Change UK.

[26] In February 2005, he married Nicola Murphy, a special adviser to Gordon Brown, in Westminster;[27] the couple became engaged the previous year.

[28] In April 2016, Nicola Murphy founded Labour Tomorrow, an organisation which funded Labour-connected activists and groups who oppose Jeremy Corbyn as party leader.