Liam Fox

Sir Liam Fox (born 22 September 1961) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Trade from 2016 to 2019 and Secretary of State for Defence from 2010 to 2011.

While studying medicine in the early 1980s, he was a member of the Glasgow University Dialectic Society and became president of the university's Conservative Association.

He studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, graduating with a MB ChB in 1983.

Fox is a former general practitioner (he was a GP in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, before his election to Parliament), a former Civilian Army General Practitioner and Divisional Surgeon with St John Ambulance.

He is a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Fox contested the Hairmyres ward of East Kilbride District Council in May 1984, coming second (210 votes) to the incumbent Labour councillor, Ed McKenna.

While at Glasgow, Fox resigned his position on the university's Students Representative Council (SRC) in protest at the council passing a motion condemning the decision of the university's Glasgow University Union (GUU) not to allow a gay students' society to join the union.

The SRC motion called both the union's decision and the explanations given for it "bigoted".

The GUU maintained its stance regardless, and the controversy was reported in the national media; this led to many other university student unions up and down the country, including Edinburgh, cutting ties with their Glasgow counterparts.

Explaining his decision to resign from the SRC and support the GUU's position, Fox was quoted as saying: "I'm actually quite liberal when it comes to sexual matters. I just don't want the gays flaunting it in front of me, which is what they would do."

His first attempt to get elected as an MP for a Scottish constituency ended in failure when he contested Roxburgh and Berwickshire in the 1987 general election.

A member of the Conservative Party, Fox has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Somerset, formerly Woodspring, since 1992.

Fox studied medicine at the University of Glasgow and worked as a GP and civilian army medical GP before being elected as an MP.

Thereafter, he sought and won the nomination for the English constituency of Woodspring and was successful in being elected MP for that constituency at the 1992 general election.

In June 1993, Fox was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary, Michael Howard.

Thereafter, in July 1994, he was appointed an Assistant Government Whip.

Following a limited government reshuffle in November 1995, he was appointed a Lord Commissioner of Treasury – a Senior Government Whip.

He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1996 to 1997.

In 1996, he brokered an accord in Sri Lanka, called the Fox Peace Plan, between Chandrika Kumaratunga's PA and the opposition UNP of Ranil Wickremasinghe, on a bipartisan approach for ending the ethnic war.

In June 1997, Fox was appointed Opposition Front Bench Spokesman on Constitutional Affairs and joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1998 as the principal spokesman for Constitutional Affairs.

After holding several ministerial roles under John Major, Fox served as Constitutional Affairs Spokesman from 1998 to 1999, Shadow Health Secretary from 1999 to 2003, Chair of the Conservative Party from 2003 to 2005, Shadow Foreign Secretary in 2005 and Shadow Defence Secretary from 2005 to 2010.

Between 1999 and 2003, he was the Shadow Secretary of State for Health.

In 2001, Jonathan Goodhand wrote, "However, little has happened since then to suggest that the various parties would have acted in good faith in the interests of peace."

In November 2003, Fox was appointed campaign manager for Michael Howard following the no-confidence vote against the Conservative's party leader, Iain Duncan Smith.

Fox became co-chairman of the party following Michael Howard's elevation to the post of party leader in November 2003.

Fox has twice stood unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Conservative Party, in 2005 and 2016.

After the 2005 general election he was promoted within the Shadow Cabinet to become Shadow Foreign Secretary.

On 7 December 2005 he was moved to Shadow Defence Secretary by new Leader of the Opposition David Cameron.

In September 2005, Fox announced he would join the contest to be the next leader of the Conservative party.

His campaign theme for the 2005 leadership race was based on the "broken society" theme, which he said Conservatives could address by returning the emphasis to marriage and reforming welfare.

When asked about these comments in 2008, Fox said that "fortunately most of us have progressed from the days when we were students more than a quarter of a century ago".

In the 2009 expenses scandal, he was the Shadow Cabinet minister found to have the largest over-claim on expenses and, as a result, was forced to repay the most money.

In 2010, he was appointed Defence Secretary by Prime Minister David Cameron, a position from which he resigned on 14 October 2011 over allegations that he had given a close friend, lobbyist Adam Werritty, inappropriate access to the Ministry of Defence and allowed him to join official trips overseas.

In July 2016, in the wake of the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union, Fox was appointed the first Secretary of State for International Trade by new Prime Minister Theresa May.

He was also made President of the Board of Trade.

In July 2019, he lost his cabinet position when new Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed his cabinet.

He was knighted in the 2023 Political Honours for public and political service.

Fox was born and raised in a Roman Catholic family of Irish heritage in East Kilbride, Scotland, and brought up in a council house that his parents later bought.

His great-uncle, John Fox, was Labour Provost of Motherwell, and most of his family were Labour supporters.

Along with his brother and two sisters, he was educated in the state sector, attending St Bride's High School (now part of St Andrew's and St Bride's High School) in East Kilbride.