About me

I am privileged to have been the Member of Parliament for North Southwark and Bermondsey for many years and to have been selected to stand for re-election as the local MP on May 6th. On my suggestion, the constituency has been renamed Bermondsey and Old Southwark. I am also the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat party in the House of Commons. I succeeded Dr Vince Cable in June this year after he stepped down to concentrate on his new role in the cabinet.

Over the years I have had a number of parliamentary responsibilities. In the last parliament I was a member of the Select Committee on the Modernisation of the House of Commons, the Cross Party Group on Lords Reform, the Ecclesiastical Committee and also a member of several All Party Parliamentary Groups. I was also the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change.

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I was born in Cheshire, moving to Wales when I was eight and then to Herefordshire when I was eighteen.

I read Law at Selwyn College, Cambridge (1970-73), joining the Union of Liberal Students and becoming President of the College Student Union.

I was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1974. I then took the opportunity to study in Europe - spending a year at the College of Europe in Bruges of postgraduate European Studies.

I moved to Southwark in 1978 and have lived here ever since. Before I entered local politics I was a youth leader with the Greenhouse Trust until 1982. During that time I was also the founding Chairman of the Burgess Park Residents' Association and for nearly ten years I was a member of Southwark Area Youth Committee.

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I was elected to Parliament as the youngest opposition MP in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election which set a still unbeaten record for swing between two parties in any British parliamentary election (50.9%).

I was re-elected for the enlarged Southwark and Bermondsey constituency in 1983, 1987 and 1992. At the 1997 election the seat was enlarged again by the addition of a further ward - Newington - and renamed North Southwark and Bermondsey. I was again elected to represent the seat in 2001 with a significantly increased majority, and was re-elected in the 2005 general election. I was re-elected in 2010 to the renamed seat of Bermondsey and Old Southwark, this time with the largest number of votes I have ever received.

I consider myself very lucky to have been given the opportunity to represent the people of Southwark and Bermondsey for such a long time.

The constituency has always been a vibrant and exciting place to represent and I hugely enjoy living and working here. Since 1983 our local area has seen a large amount of regeneration and renewal. The traditional factories and industry have been largely replaced by new shops and communities and the constituency is now a thriving area for businesses as well as residents.

Between 2005 and April 2010 there was still no shortage of work for me as the local MP and I spent over 70 hours per week helping constituents and representing their issues in parliament.

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General Election Results 2010, Bermondsey and Old Southwark

At the General Election in Bermondsey & Old Southwark on 6th May 2010, 44651 votes were cast (approximately 58% of the total number of eligible voters) with the following result:

General Election Results 2005, Southwark North & Bermondsey

On 5 May 2005, 37959 votes were cast in the constituency (approximately 48% of the total number of eligible voters), with the following results:

As an MP since 1983 I have had the privilege to be one of the longest serving frontbench MPs in parliament. I have served the Liberal Democrats across many of the major portfolio areas.

Liberal Spokesman for:

• Environment 1983-88

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson or Shadow Secretary of State for:

• Health 1988

• Education, Science and Training 1988-92

• Environment and Natural Resources 1992-94

• Urban Affairs and Young People 1994-97

• Health 1995-99

• Home and Legal Affairs 1999-2003

• London 2003-04

• Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2005

• Attorney General 2005-07

• Constitutional Affairs/Justice 2006-07

• Leader of the House of Commons 2007-09

• Energy and Climate Change 2009-2010

I have also had the privilege of representing the Liberal Democrats as the person responsible for the following portfolios:

• Spokesman for London 1988-97

• Deputy Chief Whip 1989-99

• Spokesperson for the Church of England 1988-97

I have introduced several bills in parliament seeking to amend the law:

• on leaseholder reform

• on empty properties;

• on access to information;

• to set up Parish and Community Councils in London;

• for the disestablishment of the Church of England;

• for equal rights for war pensioners; and

• perhaps most famously to require the Queen to pay income tax and to change the current sexist rules of succession to the throne.

I have been a member of the Accommodation and Works Committee of the House of Commons and a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee of Parliament.

Currently I am the Liberal Democrat spokeperson for Energy and Climate Change.

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At Bournemouth Conference 2008

What makes the Lib Dems different (external link)

I joined the Liberal Party in 1971 inspired by the campaigns for international justice in places such as South Africa and Palestine. Since my election in 1983 I have been very proud to serve and represent the Liberal Democrats in a number of party roles in addition to those in parliament. These roles have included:

• Chair, Liberal Party's Home Affairs Panel 1977-83

• Vice-Chair, Southwark and Bermondsey Liberal Association 1981-83

• Vice-President, Liberal Democrat Youth and Students 1983-86

• President, National League of Young Liberals 1986-92

• President, Liberal Democrat Youth and Students 1992-

In the summer of 1999 I was runner up to Charles Kennedy (with 43% of the vote) in the party's leadership election. Following Charles' resignation as party leader in January 2006, I again offered myself as a candidate for the leadership, but did not win.

In 2004 I was elected Party President, a post I held until the end of 2008.

In June 2010 I became the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons.

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Despite the demands that parliament makes on an MP's time, I have always kept up my interests in supporting good causes and in writing. I authored and jointly authored a number of booklets on human rights, the law, defence, and political realignment including:

• Co-Author, Human Rights in Western Europe - The Next Thirty Years (1981)
• The Prosecutorial Process in England and Wales (1981)
• Across the Divide - Liberal Values for Defence and Disarmament (1986)
• What Price Our Planet? (1990)
• Pathways to Power (1992)
• Who Goes Where? - Asylum: Opportunity not Crisis (2002)
• Co-Author, Beyond Blair (2006)

Additionally, I am honoured to have been asked to be involved in the work of a number of groups and organisations that operate in and serve the community. I am the patron, chair or trustee of the following schools and organisations:

• Chair, The Mayor's Thames Festival (website)
• Patron, The Southwark Playhouse (website)
• Chair, London Bubble Theatre (more about Simon's involvement)

• Chair of Governors for St James' Church of England Primary School

• Trustee, Bacon's Church of England City Academy

• Vice President, The Tree Council (website)
• Trustee, Social Mobility Foundation (website)
• Ambassador, Keep Britain Tidy (website)
• Trustee, The Rose Theatre Trust (website)
• Member of the Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention and Human Security (website)
• Trustee, The Sport Action Zone (website)

I am also the former patron of the Missing Persons Helpline as well as PAPYRUS - prevention of young suicide. In 1994 I became an Honorary Fellow of London South Bank University. I am a past president of the Bristol Youth Council, Liberal Democrats against Apartheid, One World Democrats, and the Southwark Chamber of Commerce, and was for five years until 1999 the chair of the Save Guy's Hospital Campaign. I am also a former Patron of London Wildlife Trust and Surrey Docks Farm .

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In my spare time my interests are music (everything from Church music to Eurovision), the theatre, history, sport (including supporting Wales at Rugby, Glamorgan at Cricket and Millwall and Hereford at football), the countryside and open air, travel and spending time with family and friends. My frequent ambition is to have more time to sleep.

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