Edward Leigh

For other people named Edward Leigh, see Edward Leigh (disambiguation).

Edward Leigh MP
Member of Parliament for Gainsborough Gainsborough and Horncastle (1983-1997)
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 June 1983
Preceded by	Marcus Kimball
Majority	10,559 (21.4%)
Personal details
Born	20 July 1950 (1950-07-20) Kensington, London, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Mary Goodman
Children	6
Alma mater	Durham University
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	www.edwardleigh.org.uk

Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (born 20 July 1950) is a British Conservative politician. He has sat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Gainsborough in Lincolnshire since 1997, and for its predecessor constituency of Gainsborough and Horncastle between 1983 and 1997. He served as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee since 2001, but stepped down at the end of the parliamentary session in 2010 as it is customary for a member of the opposition party to hold this post.

Apart from being dubbed "the Viscount" upon his arrival in the Commons, in allusion to his landed gentry background, he also gained a reputation owing to his staunch opposition to abortion, contraception and genetic research, for his support of capital punishment and for his defence of Section 28, which made Local Authorities not allowed to "promote the teaching in any maintained-school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

These strongly held beliefs derive from his Roman Catholic upbringing. Leigh himself was an opponent of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and voted against it in Parliament at its Second Reading. Once passed, Leigh proposed an amendment to the Act to extend the property and pension rights afforded by civil partnerships to siblings who had lived together for more than 12 years. This was opposed by many backers of the initial Bill, such as frontbench Conservative MP Alan Duncan, who considered it a wrecking amendment.

A veteran bankbencher, Leigh was encouraged to challenge for the Speakership of the House of Commons, and after the 2010 General Election for one of the Deputy Speakerships, but chose not to pursue this ambition for the time being since parliamentary convention precludes members of the governing party being elected to such high office, unless already in situ. He speaks regularly in the House, mostly on ecclesiastical and economic matters.

Early life

He was educated at The Oratory School, the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle (the French School in London), before going up to University College, Durham where he read History (BA) and was elected President of the Durham Union Society. Before entering politics, he qualified as a barrister at the Inner Temple, and practised in arbitration and criminal law as a member of Goldsmiths Chambers. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Leigh was elected a member of Richmond Borough Council and thereafter of the Greater London Council, serving as Councillor between 1974 and 1981.

Edward Leigh is a son of the late Sir Neville Leigh KCVO, a former Clerk to the Privy Council, of the West Hall, High Legh family, and a nephew of Princess Nikolai Galitzine. He has six children (sons Benedict, Nicholas, Theodore, born 1988, 1994 and 1997, and daughters Natalia, Tamara and Marina, born 1985, 1987 and 1990) by his wife, Mary Goodman, a grandniece of George, Duke of Mecklenburg and a great grand daughter of Lady Ottoline Morrell, whom he married in London on 25 September 1984.

Career

A strong supporter of Margaret Thatcher, Leigh and a colleague, the former MP Michael Brown, went to 10 Downing Street on the morning of Thatcher's resignation as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to try to persuade her to carry on. Although Charles Powell advised them it was a forlorn task, they were nonetheless granted access to the Cabinet which was in process at the time. Leigh and Brown departed Number 10 and walked down Whitehall back to the House of Commons reputedly with "tears in their eyes". After Thatcher resigned, in the ensuing leadership election, Leigh supported Michael (now Lord) Heseltine, under whom he had served at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) although some allege he asserted that Heseltine had "stabbed" Thatcher in the front, not in the back like some other MPs.

Leigh served as a Minister in John Major's Government but was sacked in May 1993 over the stance he took opposing the Maastricht Treaty. Whilst in office at the DTI he was a keen advocate of privatisation of the Post Office, a debate which is still ongoing. In the following Conservative leadership election, Leigh supported John Redwood.

In October 2006, Leigh was vocal in stating that after David Cameron had become Leader of his Party core supporters were drifting away from voting Conservative. Nonetheless, despite being on the losing side in successive party leadership elections, his appointment as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee led to the rejuvenation of his parliamentary career.

Early in 2008, as Chairman of the PAC, he was embarrassed by relying on flawed Department for Transport statistics to attack motorcyclists for tax evasion. He accused 38% of motorcyclists of evading vehicle excise duty. He later apologised for this following the admission by the Department for Transport that 95.5% of motorcycles are entirely legal.

Leigh is President of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group, which represents the views of over 40 Conservative Members of Parliament. He was author of the group's inaugural pamphlet "Faith, Flag and Family" in 2005.

At the end of 2010 Leigh was offered but declined the British Ambassadorship to the Holy See. Leigh also supports Boris Johnson's call to George Osborne for lowering the rate of taxation in the UK in order to assist its economic recovery following the Credit crunch. Leigh, a qualified barrister, opposes further human rights legislation, as proposed by the European Court of Human Rights

Personal life

Leigh's wife Mary is descended from Princess Augusta of Great Britain, a sister of King George III. Since her husband is a Roman Catholic, however, she has renounced her (very distant) rights to the line of succession to the British throne.

External links

• Edward Leigh MP's official site
• Dods
• Debrett's People of Today
• Edward Leigh MP's biography at the site of the Conservative Party
• Public Accounts Committee
• ePolitix.com - Edward Leigh
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Edward Leigh MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Edward Leigh MP
• The Public Whip - Edward Leigh MP voting record
• BBC News - Edward Leigh profile, 15 February 2005
• Guardian writer Michael White hailing Leigh's redemption - 2007
• Interview with Edward Leigh November 2007
• Nicholas Cecil, London Evening Standard Chief Political Correspondent, writing about Edward Leigh and the Speakership of the House of Commons - 2010

Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Gainsborough and Horncastle 1983 – 1997	Constituency abolished
	Member of Parliament for Gainsborough 1997 – present	Incumbent