Stephen Lloyd

Stephen Anthony Christopher Lloyd (born 15 June 1957) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was twice Member of Parliament (MP) for the seat of Eastbourne.

Born in Kenya, he was privately educated in Surrey, before working first as a commodity broker and then in business development roles.

Lloyd was born on 15 June 1957 in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya, to John Lloyd and Nuala Lloyd.

He was educated in the UK from the age of eight at the independent St. George's College, Weybridge in Surrey.

Lloyd is hearing-impaired.

At the age of six, having contracted measles, Lloyd lost all hearing in his left ear, retaining only partial hearing in his right.

Prior to becoming an MP, Lloyd worked in business for over 20 years.

From 1977 to 1980, he worked as a commodity broker for Cominco.

From 1998 to 2005, he was a business development director at the Grass Roots Group.

Lloyd first contested the Beaconsfield constituency, in Buckinghamshire at the 2001 general election.

He came in third place behind the Labour candidate Stephen Lathrope and the victor, Dominic Grieve of the Conservatives.

Lloyd received 9,117 votes and a 21.6% share of the vote.

In 2002, Lloyd was selected by the Liberal Democrats to be their next candidate for the constituency of Eastbourne in East Sussex.

Viewed as a high target seat for the party, selection was competitive and he beat future parliamentary colleagues Duncan Hames and Tessa Munt to the final nomination.

Lloyd spent the next three years becoming engaged in local causes, in preparation for the next general election.

He became resident in his constituency before (and remained so since) his 2005 candidature and became its MP, a predominantly single-town seat by population, at various times from 2010.

From 2005 to 2010, Lloyd worked for the Federation of Small Businesses as a business development consultant.

At the 2005 general election, Lloyd lost to the sitting Conservative MP, Nigel Waterson.

Lloyd continued to campaign locally for various causes, including leading opposition to plans to build a new B&Q megastore in Sovereign Harbour, which was subsequently refused by the planning committee of the Liberal Democrat-controlled Eastbourne Borough Council in October 2005.

First elected in the 2010 general election, he served for all five years of the 2010–2015 UK parliament and supported the Cameron–Clegg coalition.

At the 2010 general election, Lloyd's campaign centred on local issues and highlighting of the expenses claims of his Conservative Party opponent, Nigel Waterson.

He also asked to be lent votes by local supporters of the Labour and Green parties.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg hosted his eve of poll rally, where former Conservative MP Ernle Money, who had moved to Eastbourne, pledged his support to Lloyd.

On 7 May, Lloyd was elected the MP for Eastbourne with a majority of 3,435 votes.

Waterson subsequently sued Lloyd for libel over the contents of Lloyd's election leaflets, which had called Waterson an "expenses scandal MP".

From 2010 to 2015, Lloyd served as the Liberal Democrats' spokesperson for Northern Ireland in the House of Commons.

Over the same period, Lloyd served on the Work and Pensions Select Committee in the House of Commons.

He was thought by the Labour opposition to be wavering about supporting changes to housing benefit presented to the committee, but declared that he supported the "direction of travel" of the government.

He campaigned for concessions from the Department for Work and Pensions in relation to Personal Independence Payment descriptors to ensure that people with reduced mobility would still be entitled to their Motability vehicles.

In 2010, Lloyd lobbied the Government to reconsider its planned reforms to student visa regulations, which threatened the future of English language schools, arguing it was "nonsensical" to require overseas students to speak the language before they came to study it.

Throughout his first term in Parliament, Lloyd served as chair of a number of all-party parliamentary groups including those for Citizens Advice, microfinance, apprenticeships and further education and skills.

He also served as vice chair of the APPGs on deafness, mental health, dementia, ageing and older people, town centre management, multiple sclerosis, trading standards, pharmacy, and justice for Equitable Life policyholders.

Additionally, the Federation of Small Businesses and City and Guilds of London Institute invited him to be their respective champions in parliament.

Lloyd founded the All Party Parliamentary Group on religious education in schools in 2010.

On 9 December 2011, the High Court ruled that Lloyd had defamed Waterson.

Lloyd appealed, and on 28 February 2013 the Court of Appeal found in Lloyd's favour, overturning the original judgment.

Having lost his seat to the Conservative candidate Caroline Ansell in the 2015 general election, Lloyd went on to regain it in 2017 and served as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Work and Pensions.

On 6 December 2018, Lloyd resigned the Liberal Democrat whip, saying that his party's position on Brexit was inconsistent with his pledge to his constituency that he would "respect the result" of the 2016 EU referendum.

Until 29 October 2019, Lloyd sat in the House of Commons as an Independent, remaining a member of the Liberal Democrat party, but had the whip restored following the announcement of the general election, and the 'clean-slate' opportunity to be on the ballot paper as a committed remainer.

He was again defeated by Caroline Ansell at the 2019 general election.