Evan Harris

Evan Leslie Harris (born 21 October 1965) is a British Liberal Democrat politician.

Evan Harris was born on 21 October 1965 in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of South African Jewish parents (his father was a medical professor).

He was brought up in Liverpool, where he had a state education at the Liverpool Blue Coat School.

In 1984 he won a scholarship to the independent Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, California, and later won a scholarship to attend Wadham College, Oxford, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in physiology and a diploma in medical sociology.

He completed his education at the Oxford Medical School, where he graduated BM BCh and qualified as a physician in 1991.

Harris began his career at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital in 1991 as a Pre-Registration House Officer (junior doctor).

A year later, he moved to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, specialising in acute medicine and surgery.

Harris held the position of local British Medical Association representative and negotiator from 1992 to 1994, following which he was elected to the BMA's National Council.

Harris is a humanist, and a patron of Humanists UK.

In 1994 Harris moved to Oxfordshire Health Authority, becoming an honorary specialist registrar in public health and working on issues to do with NHS staffing and training.

He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford West and Abingdon from 1997 to 2010, losing his seat in the 2010 general election by 176 votes to Conservative Nicola Blackwood.

He was first elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 General Election for Oxford West and Abingdon.

The seat had previously been held by Conservative John Patten, a former Cabinet minister.

Harris gained the seat for the Liberal Democrats with a majority of 6,285, making his maiden speech on 21 May 1997, and remained the MP there until 2010.

In parliament, he was made a frontbench spokesman on Health in 1997 by Paddy Ashdown.

Following the election of Charles Kennedy as party leader in 1999, Harris became spokesman on Higher Education and Women's issues.

Harris was a member of the education and employment select committee between 1999 and 2001.

Evan Harris is a member of the centre-left Beveridge Group within the Liberal Democrats, and was Honorary President of the Liberal Democrats Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equality organisation (LGBT+ Liberal Democrats) from 2000 to 2012.

In parliament, he served on many party groups, including the kidney group (as chairman); mental health; science; refugees; equality; and AIDS group.

Harris was initially alleged to have profited from the sale of his second home by The Daily Telegraph during the expenses scandal.

However, following Harris's response, the Telegraph withdrew its allegations.

Sir Thomas Legg, the auditor brought in by the House of Commons, wrote to Harris to say that there were no problems with his expenses.

Harris is pro-choice on abortion, and supports the right of mentally competent, terminally ill people to take their own lives under certain circumstances.

This has led to criticism from pro-life and Church leaders, such as George Pitcher.

Harris has also spoken in support of medical research involving animals, including that carried out at Oxford University.

He was promoted to the Liberal Democrat shadow cabinet following the 2001 general election as Shadow Secretary of State for Health, but stood down in 2003 to care for his girlfriend Liz O'Hara who had been diagnosed with terminal glioblastoma multiforme.

He was then a member of the select committees for science and technology between 2003 and 2010, and for human rights between 2005 and 2010.

Following the 2005 general election, Harris returned to the frontbench team as spokesman on Science, a position he held until his defeat in the 2010 general election.

Notably, he joined Pro-Test's Oxford march in February 2008.

In 2009, Evan Harris was awarded (with Lord Avebury) the National Secular Society's Secularist of the Year Award in recognition of his role in the abolition of the common law offence of blasphemous libel.

He was also a vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, before being unseated at the 2010 general election.

In addition, he is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society, and the Patron of the Oxford Secular Society.

Harris lists his interests as football, bridge and chess.

This led animal rights activist Keith Mann to stand against Harris in the 2010 general election, during which he referred to Harris as "Dr Death".

Harris is a vocal backer of reform of defamation laws in the United Kingdom.

He notably supported Simon Singh in his libel case against the British Chiropractic Association, saying "For every Simon Singh who wins there are hundreds of writers who never dare publish or who give up their legal battle because they cannot risk the cost of losing. That is why all the political parties must be held to their promises take action [to reform defamation law]".

In the 2010 general election, Harris was defeated by the Conservative candidate Nicola Blackwood.

Harris received 23,730 votes to Blackwood's 23,906 – a margin of 176 votes.

This equated to a 6.9% swing from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives.

Since 2011 he has been the joint executive director of Hacked Off, the campaign for an accountable press.