Constituency : King's Lynn 1970-74 ; Norfolk North West 1974-81 ( Conservative ), 1981-3 ( SDP )
Two weeks after the initial defections, Christopher crossed the floor of the House after attacking Geoffrey Howe's controversial budget. He is remembered as the only Conservative MP to defect to the SDP. He was a known "wet" known to colleagues as "Christopher Doggerbank-Trawler".
Christopher contested West Ham North in 1964 but came third. He took King's Lynn from Labour in 1970 by just 33 votes in a straight fight. He held the successor seat North West Norfolk by slim majorities in the 1974 elections then won by nearly 8,000 votes in 1979.
Christopher joined in time to be present at the party's official launch. Roy Jenkins found him a difficult colleague.
Christopher made a good fist of defending the seat in 1983 taking much of the previous Labour vote but losing by 3,000 votes. He came second again in 1987 but the Tory pulled away with a majority of over 10,000. Christopher contested Norfolk South for the Liberal Democrats coming a distant second to John McGregor.
In 1996 Christopher joined Labour following Tony Blair's reforms of the party.
He is now 85 and still active locally, urging preservation of the King's Lynn Guildhall..
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