Edward Davey MP

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Lib Dem majority: 8,966  (18%)

Constituency: Kingston & Surbiton

Region: London

PA Number: 337

Address:
21 Berrylands Road
Surbiton
Surrey
KT5 8QX

Tel: 020 8288 0161

Fax: 020 8288 1090

Email: daveye@parliament.uk

Web: http://www.edwarddavey.co.uk

Date of Birth: 25/12/1965

Occupation: MP

Education: Nottingham High School; Jesus College, Oxford; Birkbeck College, London University

Experience: Worked for the Liberal Democrats in Parliament 1989-93 becoming Senior Economics Advisor then moved to a management consultancy firm, Omega Partners (1993-97)

Parliamentary Experience: 2007- Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Chair Campaigns and Communications Mar-Dec 2006 Shadow Secretary of State for DTI, 2005-06 Shadow Education Secretary, 2002-05 Shadow Office of the Deputy Prime Minister

Marital status/children: Married in July 2005 to Emily Gasson, Lib Dem candidate for Dorset North in 2005

Interests: Walking, cinema, music, squash and swimming

BIOGRAPHY

Edward Davey is Chair of the Federal Party‘s Campaigns and Communications Committee, and Chief of Staff to Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Menzies Campbell.

Both Ed Davey’s parents died while he was young - his father, a solicitor, when Ed was four, and his mother, a teacher, when Ed was 15. Thereafter Ed lived with his maternal grandparents. He attended Nottingham High School (1974-84) where he was head boy in 1984. He took first class honours in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Jesus College, Oxford (1985-1988) where he was elected President of the College’s Junior Common Room and was active in an environmental campaigning group.

Six months after graduating Ed answered a newspaper advertisement and got a job as Economics Researcher for the Liberal Democrats in Parliament, working in the Commons from 1989 to 1993, principally for Alan Beith and Paddy Ashdown. Promoted to be the party’s senior economics adviser, Ed was closely involved in developing the party’s economic policies and was in charge of costing the 1992 election manifesto, while studying in the evenings at Birkbeck College, London University, for his MSc in Economics. In 1993 Ed left Parliament to work for Omega Partners, visiting 28 countries to work on strategic market analysis and business forecasting projects for postal services in countries such as Belgium, South Africa, Sweden and Taiwan. While working for Omega, though, he remained an active Liberal Democrat, serving on the Federal Policy Committee and other policy groups.

He was chosen as prospective candidate for Kingston and Surbiton in March 1995, and won the seat (with a majority of 56) at the 1997 General Election after three recounts. In 2001 he held the seat, achieving the largest swing in the country and increasing his majority to 15,676. On election in 1997 Ed was appointed Economics Affair spokesman by Paddy Ashdown, and he was promoted by Charles Kennedy  to be No 2 in the Treasury team under Matthew Taylor, with responsibility for public spending and taxation policy. After the 2001 election Ed was again promoted by Charles Kennedy to join the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In October 2002 Ed was appointed to shadow the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for Local Government and the Regions, in which role he took the lead in the Liberal Democrats’ campaign to scrap the unfair Council Tax. Ed was made Liberal Democrat Shadow Education and Skills Secretary in 2005 before being transferred by Sir Menzies Campbell in March 2006 to a new role as Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary. He left this post in December 2006.

Ed is chairman of the Liberal Democrats’ Campaigns and Communications Committee, in charge of the party’s campaigns and preparations for the next General Election. In December 2006 he was additionally appointed Chief of Staff to party leader Menzies Campbell. Ed was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and the Chair of Campaigns and Communications after Nick Clegg was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Before becoming an MP Ed received awards from the Royal Humane Society and the Chief Constable of the British Transport Police in 1994 for rescuing a woman from the path of an oncoming train at Clapham Junction. Ed speaks French, Spanish and German, and supports Notts County FC (having chosen the Magpies’ strip in preference to that of Nottingham Forest when he was four) and Kingstonian FC.

Ed lives in Surbiton and in July 2005 married Emily Gasson, who was Liberal Democrat candidate in the marginal North Dorset constituency in the 2001 and 2005 General Elections. Ed's publications include Making MPs Work for Our Money (Centre for Reform, 2000) arguing for major reform of how Parliament scrutinises the budget. A free copy can be downloaded Ed's: www.edwarddavey.co.uk. 

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