1. David Patrick Paul Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, was born on 15 March 1951 and is a British-Irish politician, formerly a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party and later Liberal Democrat who has sat as a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 1997 when he was made a life peer.
David Alton is a visiting professor of Liverpool Hope University, an Ambassador Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University, and a former President of the Catholic Union of Great Britain.
David Alton's mother was a native Irish speaker from the West of Ireland.
David Alton began his career as a teacher and, in 1972, was elected as a Liberal to Liverpool City Council as Britain's youngest city councillor.
David Alton was elected for the Low Hill ward, serving from 1972 to 1974, then, after the Local Government Act 1974, he was elected for the Smithdown ward where he served for the next six years.
David Alton was a member of Merseyside County Council for the Smithdown division from 1974 to 1977 and chairman of the housing committee.
David Alton was deputy leader of Liverpool City Council from 1978 to 1980.
David Alton won the seat the day after the Callaghan Government was defeated in a vote of confidence and the 1979 General Election being called.
David Alton became the shortest lived MP, a member for less than a week, and made his Maiden Speech within three hours of taking his seat.
David Alton was the only new member of a Parliamentary Party of 11 MPs.
David Alton served as Chief Whip from 1985 to 1987.
David Alton is known for his anti-abortion position, and in 1987 he resigned as Chief Whip to campaign for his unsuccessful private member's bill which aimed to stop late abortions.
David Alton became a Liberal Democrat MP when the Liberal Party merged with the SDP in 1988, but he had difficult relations with parts of the party, especially over attempts to make the party adopt a position in favour of abortion rights.
David Alton stood down as an MP at the 1997 general election.
David Alton was created as Baron Alton of Liverpool, of Mossley Hill in the County of Merseyside on 12 June 1997.
David Alton took his seat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher on 12 June 1997.
David Alton is chairman of the British-DPRK All-Party Parliamentary Group, and visited Pyongyang in October 2010 when he had talks with leaders of the North Korean government including Choe Thae-bok, the chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly.
On 26 March 2021, it was announced that David Alton was one of two members of the House of Lords to be sanctioned by China for spreading what it called "lies and disinformation" about the country.
David Alton was banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau, and Chinese citizens and institutions are prohibited from doing business with him.
David Alton was formally denounced by the North Korean regime and told he would be listed as an enemy of their State because of his collaboration with the UN Commission of Inquiry into North Korea which found evidence of crimes against humanity and for providing support to escapees.
David Alton served on: House of Lords International Relations and Defence Select Committee from 2019 - 2023.
In 1997, David Alton was appointed Professor of Citizenship at Liverpool John Moores University, establishing the Foundation for Citizenship and the Roscoe Lectures.
David Alton established the lobby group for human rights, Jubilee Campaign, in 1987, with the support of other members of parliament.
David Alton co-founded Jubilee Action, a children's charity established to fulfil the humanitarian needs highlighted by the work of Jubilee Campaign.
David Alton campaigned against the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, opposing the creation and use of animal-human hybrid stem cells for medical purposes.
In reaction to pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho's actions regarding women and the LGBT+ community, as well as Ho's alleged support of the Yuen Long attackers, David Alton worked with Luke de Pulford to pressure Anglia Ruskin University into rescinding the honorary doctoral degree it had conferred on Ho.
David Alton is married to Elizabeth Bell, they have four children and five grandchildren.
David Alton holds both British and Irish citizenship, as do his children.
David Alton resides in Lancashire and is a Roman Catholic.
David Alton has been appointed a Knight Commander of Merit of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George in 2003.
David Alton was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.
David Alton received the 2023 Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty.