Sir Charles Geoffrey Cox is a British Conservative Party politician and barrister serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Torridge and West Devon since the 2005 general election. Cox worked as a barrister from 1982 onwards and was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 2003, two years before his election to Parliament. He served as Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland under Theresa May and Boris Johnson from 2018 to 2020.
Cox was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1982, and started practice as a barrister. In 1992 he co-founded Thomas More Chambers, as its Head of Chambers. He was appointed as a Queen's Counsel in 2003.
For part of his career as a barrister, Cox was Standing Counsel to the government of Mauritius. His cases have included "civil fraud and asset recovery, commercial, human rights, defamation, and judicial review actions". He has appeared as leading counsel in the Supreme Court or the Privy Council, and he was instructed to lead in commercial actions and arbitrations overseas, appearing in the DIFC, Mauritius and the Cayman Islands.
His criminal cases have included the Jubilee line corruption trial and successfully defending a member of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment who had been accused of war crimes related to the death of Baha Mousa.
In 2014, Cox successfully defended the former Premier (and current Speaker of the Legislative Assembly) of the Cayman Islands, McKeeva Bush, on charges of corruption and misuse of office. In March 2015, Cox successfully defended the deputy Editor of The Sun, Geoff Webster, in a trial of four journalists resulting from Operation Elveden. The jury had to decide at what point the behaviour of those on trial could be considered a criminal rather than a serious disciplinary matter; even the lawyers found this difficult to define. Cox subsequently publicly criticised the vagueness of the law, and its disproportionate use that had led to the prosecution.
