Andrea Leadsom
Andrea Leadsom | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of Parliament for South Northamptonshire | |
| Assumed office 6 May 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency Created |
| Majority | 20,478 (34.2%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 13 May 1963 Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire[1] |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Ben Leadsom |
| Alma mater | University of Warwick |
Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom[2] (born 13 May 1963),[1][3] is the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Northamptonshire.[4]
Early life
Leadsom was born in Aylesbury and attended Tonbridge Girls' Grammar School. She studied political science at the University of Warwick.[1]
Career before Parliament
Leadsom worked in the financial sector for BZW, Barclays Bank - where she was Financial Institutions Director from 1993 to 1997 - and was Managing Director of DPFM between 1997 and 1999. She was Senior Investment Officer at Invesco Perpetual from 1999 to 2009.[1]
Political career
Prior to her election in 2010, Leadsom was a councillor on South Oxfordshire District Council between 2003 and 2007.[1][5] She contested Knowsley South constituency in the 2005 general election[1][5] and was a member of the Conservative A-List.[6] She was selected to fight the newly created South Northamptonshire constituency in June 2006. She won the seat with a majority of more than 20,000.
In 2010 she was appointed a member of the Treasury Select Committee.[5]
In July 2012, during the Libor scandal, she suggested that George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, should apologise to Ed Balls for "suggesting he was implicated in rate fixing."[7] In response to a specific question on a radio programme about whether Osborne should apologise she responded "Yes I do. I mean I think obviously he made a mistake and I think he should apologise."[7]
In February 2013 Leadsom originally stated that she will oppose equal marriage and vote against the government's bill to introduce same-sex marriage in England and Wales. She said she found the wording of the legislation “unacceptable”, and that she wanted to reflect the views of “so many” of her constituents, who felt that the bill was “deeply wrong”.[8] However, she later chose to register a positive abstention — by walking through both division lobbies — as she found herself "genuinely torn on the debate."[9]
Constituency
She is a founding trustee of NORPIP, the Northamptonshire Parent Infant Partnership, a charity to help parents bond with their babies.[10] In 2009 she launched the Towcester job club, followed in 2011 by a job club in Brackley.[11]
Personal life
She married Ben Leadsom in 1993 and has two sons and one daughter.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g ‘LEADSOM, Andrea Jacqueline’, Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012 ; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 2 Jan 2013
- ^ Search Results. london-gazette.co.uk
- ^ Andrea Leadsom – Parliamentary candidates – Telegraph. Ukpolitics.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on 2012-05-08.
- ^ Home. Andrea Leadsom. Retrieved on 2012-05-08.
- ^ a b c Andrea Leadsom, www.parliament.org. Retrieved 2013-01-02.
- ^ ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog: Where are the original A-Listers now? The 18 who have been selected for Conservative seats. Conservativehome.blogs.com (2009-04-21). Retrieved on 2012-05-08.
- ^ a b "Libor scandal: William Hague rejects Ed Balls apology calls". BBC news. 10 July 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
- ^ "Tory Northamptonshire MP: "I support the love of gay couples but it is unacceptable for them to be able to marry", www.pinknews.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-02-01
- ^ "Same Sex Marriage — UPDATED", Andrea Leadsom's blog. Retrieved 2013-05-05
- ^ "NORPIP:Board of trustees". NORPIP Nothamptonshire Parent Infant partnership. Retrieved 2 February 2014.