Ed Davey

His father John (1932–1970), a solicitor, died when Davey was four years old in Mansfield General Hospital after a three-month illness.

His mother, Nina Davey (née Stanbrook), died 11 years later, after which he was brought up by his maternal grandparents in Eakring.

Sir Edward Jonathan Davey (born 25 December 1965) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020, having acted in the position from 2019 to 2020.

Edward Jonathan Davey was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire on 25 December 1965.

He sang in the local church choir, St John's. Like his two brothers, Davey received the Duke of Edinburgh gold award, meeting Prince Philip on 2 March 1984 when the Prince visited his school, the private Nottingham High School, where Davey was head boy.

He took A-levels in German, French and History.

One of his two brothers attended Trent Polytechnic, becoming a solicitor.

After leaving school, Davey attended Jesus College, Oxford, where he was awarded a first class BA degree in Philosophy, politics and economics in 1988.

He was JCR President.

In 1989, he became an economics researcher for the Liberal Democrats, principally to Alan Beith, the party's then-Treasury spokesman, whilst studying at Birkbeck College, London, for a master's degree (MSc) in Economics.

Davey was in both the 90th Nottingham scout group and the 17th Nottingham Air Scout group.

He was closely involved in the development of Liberal Democrat policies such as an additional penny on income tax to fund education, and central bank independence, for the 1992 general election.

From 1993 to 1997, he worked in business forecasting and market analysis for management consultancy firm Omega Partners.

Davey was elected to the House of Commons, at his first attempt, in the 1997 general election, where he defeated Richard Tracey, the sitting Conservative MP for the former constituency of Surbiton, with a majority of just 56 votes, and remained the seat's MP for 18 years.

In his maiden speech, on 6 June 1997, he gave his support for the setting up of the London Assembly, but was against the idea of a directly elected Mayor of London; he also spoke of the effects governmental cuts were having on education delivery in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

In 1998, he was the primary sponsor of an early day motion supporting the repeal of the Greenwich judgment, which prevents local authorities from giving their own residents priority access to school places.

In 2001, he opposed government proposals for restrictions on gambling machines, which he described as a "silly bit of nanny state politics".

In January 2003, Davey publicly backed local constituent and NHS whistleblower Ian Perkin, who alleged he had been sacked from his director of finance role for exposing statistics manipulation at St George's NHS healthcare trust.

Davey condemned the NHS bureaucracy as "Stalinist" and called for an inquiry into Perkin's case, while personally meeting trust executives to discuss the case on behalf of Perkin.

In February 2003, Davey introduced the clause which repealed the prohibition of "promotion of homosexuality" under Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988.

The legislation was repealed in March.

He was one of the contributors to The Orange Book (2004).

He served as a Liberal Democrat spokesperson to Charles Kennedy, Menzies Campbell and Nick Clegg from 2005 to 2010, in various portfolios including Education and Skills, Trade and Industry, and Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

In 2006, Davey was one of eight Liberal Democrat MPs, including Jeremy Browne and Mark Oaten, who opposed a total ban on smoking in clubs and pubs.

He called the ban "a bit too nanny state".

In an article for the Financial Times in 2007, Davey and LSE economist Tim Leunig proposed a new system of community land auctions through sealed bids, to take place before the land was given planning permission.

In 2010, after the Liberal Democrats entered into a coalition government with the Conservative Party, Davey served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs from 2010 to 2012, and in David Cameron's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015, following Chris Huhne's resignation.

Davey focused on increasing competition in the energy market by removing barriers to entry for smaller companies, and streamlining the customer switching process.

He also approved the construction of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015 and as Deputy Leader to Jo Swinson in 2019.

He lost his seat in the 2015 general election, but regained it in the 2017 general election.

An "Orange Book" liberal, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston and Surbiton since 2017, and served in the same role from 1997 to 2015.

Davey was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where he attended Nottingham High School.

He then went on to study at Jesus College, Oxford, and Birkbeck, University of London.

He was an economics researcher and financial analyst before being elected to the House of Commons.

He served as the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson from 2017 to 2019.

In July 2019, after the retirement of Vince Cable, Davey unsuccessfully ran against Jo Swinson in a leadership election.

He was later appointed Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson and elected unopposed as Deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.

After Swinson lost her seat at the 2019 general election, Davey, while remaining Deputy Leader, served as Acting Leader alongside the Liberal Democrat Presidents Baroness Brinton and Mark Pack from December 2019 to August 2020.

Davey stood in the 2020 leadership election, in which he defeated Layla Moran with 63.5% of the vote.