John Leech

He was the first Liberal or Liberal Democrat to win a Manchester seat since 1929.

Leech is one of only two Lib Dem MPs to win their seat despite it not being on the national party's 'target list'.

John Sampson Macfarlane Leech (born 11 April 1971 ) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington from 2005 to 2015.

Leech served on the city council from 1998 and was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election.

Leech was elected to Manchester City Council in 1998 winning the Barlow Moor ward from Labour with a 12% swing.

He was re-elected in 2002, increasing his majority.

In 2004, the whole council was contested due to boundary changes and Leech won a seat for Chorlton Park, which covered most of the former Barlow Moor ward area.

He became the deputy leader of the council's opposition group and spokesperson for Planning and the Environment.

In the 2005–2010 Parliament he was a member of the Transport Select Committee and a Shadow Transport Spokesperson on the Liberal Democrat frontbench team from 2006 to 2010, when the Liberal Democrats entered a coalition with the Conservatives.

Leech was elected to parliament at the 2005 general election, defeating Keith Bradley, the incumbent Labour MP, with a swing of over 17%—the largest swing in the country that year.

In 2006, Leech was The Shadow Transport Spokesperson on the Liberal Democrat frontbench team.

He continued in the role under Nick Clegg.

He was the first Patchwork MP of the Year for his "tireless work with minority and ethnic groups" and Brake's MP of the Year and MP of the Month twice, for work on road safety in his constituency.

In the 2009 expenses scandal, it was reported that Leech claimed one of the lowest levels of expenses of any MP in the North of England.

In May 2009, Leech was listed among the "saints" by The Daily Telegraph in the expenses scandal for not needing to pay back any of his expenses.

He held his seat with an increased majority in 2010.

He has campaigned in particular on gay rights, affordable housing and refugees.

He played a role in the campaign to outlaw homophobic chanting at football matches, and put pressure on leaders in Greater Manchester to take on Syrian child refugees.

Leech voted against entering the 2010 Liberal Democrat/Conservative Coalition Government.

He was one of 21 MPs to vote against the increased tuition fees bill.

Leech also voted against the under-occupancy penalty (commonly called the 'bedroom tax'), and was the first MP to speak out against the bill in Parliament.

He voted against a pay rise for MPs in 2013.

He designed the 'Alan Turing Law' bill which led to the eventual posthumous pardon of Alan Turing and tens of thousands of other criminally convicted gay people.

He lost his Parliamentary seat at the 2015 general election, but was elected to Manchester City Council a year later as the sole opposition member.

In early 2015, an article in the Manchester Evening News reported that Leech was the second-most rebellious MP in the North of England and the second-most rebellious Lib Dem MP.

In early 2015, he launched his re-election campaign, with the slogan 'Make it 15'.

Amid a UK-wide collapse in support for the Liberal Democrats, Leech lost his seat to Labour.

Since 2016, he has represented Didsbury West on Manchester City Council.

He is best known for Alan Turing's pardon, and the Turing Law which granted a posthumous pardon to more than 49,000 men convicted of gross indecency.

He was also the first MP to speak out against the bedroom tax in Parliament.

A news article published in 2016 claimed Leech had completed more than 111,000 pieces of casework during his ten years in parliament, based on analysis from 'Write To Them'.

However, as there is no accepted definition of what qualifies as casework, this is impossible to verify.

After losing the seat, Leech said he would stand in the Manchester City Council elections in May 2016.

Leech stood in Didsbury West and won the seat from Labour with a 25% swing, picking up 53% of the vote.

Didsbury West was the most contested seat in the city with an unusually high turnout of 45%.

He was Leader of the Opposition on the council from 2018 to 2021, and for two months in 2022.

Leech was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and grew up in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, where his father was a minister at Chorlton Methodist Church.

He attended the private Manchester Grammar School, Loreto College and Brunel University where he studied History and Politics and also joined the Liberal Democrats.

He received an Upper-Second Class Honours degree on graduating.

After leaving university he worked as a trainee manager for McDonald's and part-time at the RAC in Stretford as a call centre insurance claims handler.