Tim Farron

Timothy James Farron (born 27 May 1970) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017.

From 1987 to 1992, Farron fronted the Preston-based band Tim Farron and the Voyeurs, also known as Fred The Girl.

According to Farron, the band was popular amongst Lancashire's youth after a series of highly successful tours.

Farron said the band was offered a record deal with Island Records.

However, this claim has been countered by former band members instead describing 'Tim Farron and the Voyeurs' as a "fourth rate New Order."

In 1990, he was elected to the National Union of Students' National Executive.

The following year, he was elected president of Newcastle University Students' Union, the first Liberal Democrat to hold the position, having joined the Liberal Party at the age of 16.

Farron was born in Preston, Lancashire, and educated at Lostock Hall High School and Runshaw College, Leyland, before going on to Newcastle University, where he gained a BA in Politics in 1992.

Farron has described how, in his youth, his bedroom bore pictures of widely differing politicians as the assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy, former Liberal Party leader Jo Grimond, and then–Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Before his election to Parliament, Farron worked in higher education at Lancaster University from 1992 to 2002 and St Martin's College, Ambleside, from 2002 to 2005.

Farron contested North West Durham at the 1992 general election, where he finished in third place, behind the sitting Labour Party MP Hilary Armstrong and Conservative Party candidate (and future Prime Minister) Theresa May.

He then served on Lancashire County Council from 1993 to 2000 and was also a councillor for Leyland Central ward on South Ribble Borough Council from 1995 to 1999.

Farron was selected to contest the Labour/Conservative marginal constituency of South Ribble at the 1997 general election, and again finished in third place.

He was a Liberal Democrat candidate for the North West region in the 1999 European Parliament elections.

At the 2001 general election, Farron contested the Westmorland and Lonsdale seat and finished second, reducing the majority of the sitting Conservative MP Tim Collins to 3,167.

He then served as a councillor for the Milnthorpe ward on the South Lakeland District Council from 2004 to 2008.

He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005 and is the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Before entering politics, he worked in higher education.

At the 2005 general election, Farron again fought Collins in Westmorland and Lonsdale, and this time won the election by a narrow margin of just 267 votes.

He made his maiden speech in Parliament on 25 May 2005.

As a new MP, he became a member of the Education and Skills Select committee and was appointed as Youth Affairs Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.

In 2005 he founded the all-party parliamentary group on hill farming, of which he was still chair.

During Menzies Campbell's period as the Liberal Democrat leader, Farron was Campbell's Parliamentary Private Secretary.

In 2007 he was made a Liberal Democrat spokesman for Home Affairs.

Farron resigned from the front bench of the Liberal Democrats on 5 March 2008 in protest at the party's abstention from a parliamentary vote on a proposed Conservative referendum on Britain's accession to the Lisbon Treaty.

However he later returned to the party's front bench as spokesperson for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

He is a member of the Beveridge Group within the Liberal Democrats.

At the 2010 general election, Farron was re-elected, increasing his share of the vote to 60% and increasing his majority to 12,264.

This result was against the run of the rest of the party, making Westmorland and Lonsdale one of the few Liberal Democrat strongholds.

On 27 May 2010, Farron stood for the position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, made vacant by the resignation of Vince Cable.

On 9 June, Farron lost the competition to the former party President, Simon Hughes.

Hughes won by 20 votes; having had 38 nominations from the parliamentary party, compared to Farron's 18.

On 16 September 2010, Farron stood for the position of President of the Liberal Democrats following Baroness Scott's decision not to seek re-election.

He won the election with 53% of the vote, beating fellow candidate Susan Kramer on 47%.

Farron was the President of the Liberal Democrats from 2011 to 2014.

In March 2012, Farron was one of three MPs who signed a letter sent to the Advertising Standards Authority, criticising their recent decision to stop the Christian group "Healing on the Streets of Bath" from making explicit claims that prayer can heal.

The letter called for the ASA to provide indisputable scientific evidence that faith healing did not work; Farron subsequently admitted that the letter was not "well-worded" and that he should not have signed it "as it was written".

He was the Liberal Democrats' Shadow Foreign Secretary in 2015 under Nick Clegg's leadership and Spokesperson for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2019 to 2022, with responsibility for the Northern Powerhouse from 2019 to 2020.

Farron was re-elected at the 2015 general election with a decreased vote share of 51.5% and a decreased majority of 8,949.

He served as Spokesperson for Work and Pensions under Jo Swinson from 2019 to 2020.