92 Facts About Ed Davey

Sir Edward Jonathan Davey was born on 25 December 1965 and is a British politician who has been the Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020.

Ed Davey then went on to study at Jesus College, Oxford, and Birkbeck, University of London.

Ed Davey was an economics researcher and financial analyst before being elected to the House of Commons.

Ed Davey served as a Liberal Democrat spokesperson to Charles Kennedy, Menzies Campbell and Nick Clegg from 2005 to 2010, in various portfolios including education and skills, trade and industry, and foreign and Commonwealth affairs.

In 2010, after the Liberal Democrats entered into a coalition government with the Conservative Party, Ed Davey served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs from 2010 to 2012, and in David Cameron's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015, following Chris Huhne's resignation.

Ed Davey focused on increasing competition in the energy market by removing barriers to entry for smaller companies, and streamlining the customer switching process.

Ed Davey approved the construction of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

Ed Davey lost his seat in the 2015 general election and was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for political and public service.

Ed Davey regained his seat in the 2017 general election, and served as the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson from 2017 to 2019.

Edward Ed Davey was born on 25 December 1965 in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

Ed Davey acted as a carer for his terminally ill mother before her death, and cared for his grandmother.

Ed Davey was in both the 90th Nottingham Scout group and the 17th Nottingham Air Scout group.

Ed Davey sang in the local church choir, St John's.

Ed Davey was closely involved in the development of Liberal Democrat policies such as an additional penny on income tax to fund education, and central bank independence, for the 1992 general election.

Ed Davey was elected to the House of Commons, at his first attempt, in the 1997 general election, where he defeated Richard Tracey, the sitting Conservative MP for the former constituency of Surbiton, with a majority of just 56 votes, and remained the seat's MP for 18 years.

In January 2003, Ed Davey publicly backed local constituent and NHS whistleblower Ian Perkin, who alleged he had been sacked from his director of finance role for exposing statistics manipulation at St George's NHS healthcare trust.

Ed Davey condemned the NHS bureaucracy as "Stalinist" and called for an inquiry into Perkin's case, while personally meeting trust executives to discuss the case on behalf of Perkin.

In February 2003, Ed Davey introduced the clause which repealed the prohibition of "promotion of homosexuality" under Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988.

Ed Davey was one of the contributors to The Orange Book.

In 2006, Ed Davey was one of eight Liberal Democrat MPs, including Jeremy Browne and Mark Oaten, who opposed a total ban on smoking in clubs and pubs.

Ed Davey added the post of whip in 1998, and as the spokesman on London from 2000.

Ed Davey increased his majority from just 56 to 15,676, beating former Conservative MP David Shaw.

Ed Davey joined the Liberal Democrat frontbench under Leader Charles Kennedy in the same year when he was appointed the party's spokesperson for Treasury matters.

Ed Davey was appointed spokesperson for Education and Skills in 2005, before becoming spokesperson for Trade and Industry in March 2006.

Ed Davey was chair of the party's Campaigns and Communications Committee.

On 26 February 2008, Ed Davey was suspended from parliament for the day for ignoring a warning from the Deputy Speaker.

Ed Davey was protesting about the exclusion by the Speaker of a Liberal Democrat motion to debate and vote on whether the UK should have a referendum on staying in the EU.

At the 2009 Liberal Democrat conference, Ed Davey caused controversy by calling for dialogue with the Taliban, through declaring that it was "time for tea with the Taliban", a comment echoed by Malala Yousafzai four years later to the BBC.

Ed Davey was involved in the provisional application phase of the Free Trade Agreement between the EU and South Korea.

Also in 2011, Ed Davey announced several reforms to the labour market, mainly aimed at improving labour market flexibility.

Ed Davey announced that the government would abolish the default retirement age.

Ed Davey was the only Post Office minister to meet Alan Bates, the founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, with this meeting taking place in October 2010.

However, Ed Davey said he was "completely surprised" as to why the Conservatives had awarded Vennells a CBE in 2019.

On 3 February 2012, following the resignation of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne after his conviction of perverting the course of justice in relation to speeding offences, Ed Davey was appointed Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and was appointed to the Privy Council on 8 February.

In 2013, Ed Davey set up the Green Growth Group, bringing together environmental and climate ministers from across the European Union in an effort to promote growth, investment in renewable and nuclear energy, liberalisation of the European energy market, a global carbon market, trade in energy, carbon capture technology, energy efficiency, and competition.

Domestically, Ed Davey focused on increasing competition in the energy market by removing barriers to entry for smaller companies, and streamlining the customer switching process, declaring in 2013 that "competition works".

Abroad, Ed Davey promoted investment in the British energy sector by foreign companies from countries such as Japan, South Korea, and China, making significant diplomatic trips to the latter two countries in order to highlight investment opportunities.

In October 2013, during a BBC Newsnight segment on energy bills, Ed Davey was asked by BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman whether or not he wore a jumper at home, to which Ed Davey replied that he did but stressed that competition and energy efficiency were the solutions to lowering energy bills.

Ed Davey argued the benefits of investment in onshore wind energy from companies such as Siemens was a key part of the push to reduce dependence on Russian energy, while "more diversified supplies of gas" including from the US and domestic shale gas would help.

In May 2014 at a meeting in Rome, G7 energy ministers including Ed Davey agreed formally to a process for reducing dependency on Russian energy; "Putin has crossed a line", Ed Davey declared.

Ed Davey was criticised by left-wing figures such as Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas over his support of fracking, and by the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband for Davey's warning that Labour's price control policy would cause blackouts.

In "The Liberal Democrats and supply-side economics", published in an issue of the Institute of Economic Affairs' Economic Affairs journal, Ed Davey was identified as the Liberal Democrat who had achieved the most in terms of supply-side reforms.

At the 2015 general election, Ed Davey was defeated by Conservative candidate James Berry by 2,834 votes after the Liberal Democrat vote fell by more than 15 per cent in Kingston and Surbiton.

Ed Davey later told reporters he was "obviously disappointed" with his defeat, but said it had not been a total shock.

Ed Davey regained Kingston and Surbiton for the Liberal Democrats at the 2017 general election, with a majority of 4,124 votes over Berry.

Ed Davey was then the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, having previously served as Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson from 2017 to 2019.

On 3 September 2019, Ed Davey was elected as Swinson's deputy leader.

In June 2020, whilst acting leader, Ed Davey launched his bid to become leader saying that his "experience as a carer can help rebuild Britain after the COVID-19 pandemic".

Ed Davey proposed the establishment of a basic income to support carers, and said that the Liberal Democrats should be "the party of social care".

Ed Davey ruled out a formal electoral agreement with the Labour Party, but said that he would prioritise defeating the Conservatives, and ruled out working with the Conservatives following the next election.

Ed Davey proposed a plan to reduce carbon emissions from domestic flights to zero by 2030 through investment in research and technology.

Ed Davey was one of two candidates running for leader in the Liberal Democrats leadership election, competing with Layla Moran.

Moran is considered to be more left-wing than Ed Davey and representing a break from the coalition years.

Ed Davey stressed his experience in the coalition government, and his commitments to tackle climate change.

Ed Davey led his party in the 2024 general election, and was noted, with praise and criticism, for his campaign stunts.

When visiting Windermere, Ed Davey fell off his paddleboard, whilst campaigning to highlight the political issue of sewage discharge in the United Kingdom.

When visiting Eastbourne, Ed Davey did a bungee jump, asking people to "take the plunge" and vote Liberal Democrat.

Ed Davey spoke on his experience as a carer both for his mother when he was a child, and contemporarily for his son.

On 10 June 2024, Ed Davey launched the Liberal Democrat manifesto, titled For a Fair Deal, in London.

Ed Davey stressed that the Lib Dems are a "pro-European party"; the manifesto includes a promise for the UK to rejoin the European single market.

Amid the general election betting scandal, Ed Davey, whilst admitting that he had previously bet on the outcome of elections, called for a review of gambling laws.

Ed Davey led his party to both their highest ever number of seats and the highest number of seats for a third party since 1923, restoring the Liberal Democrats as the third largest party in the House of Commons.

Ed Davey celebrated by singing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" at a Liberal Democrat party.

Ed Davey said he was humbled by the results, and jokingly said: "I've rather enjoyed this campaign".

Ed Davey retained Kingston and Surbiton for the Liberal Democrats at the election, with an increased majority.

In 2012, Ed Davey predicted the coalition government would be more pro-European Union than Tony Blair's Labour government, praising Conservative ministers and the then Prime Minister David Cameron for relations they had developed with European counterparts.

In 2017, Ed Davey warned against a Conservative Party proposal for fines on large internet companies who fail to remove extremist and terrorist material from their platforms within 24 hours, which he claimed could lead to censorship if companies are forced to rush to remove such material and pointed to Germany as an example of where this approach has the potential to lead to censorship.

Ed Davey thinks technology giants must not be treated as the "enemy" and accused the Conservatives of declaring an "all-out war" on the internet.

Similarly he is critical of Conservative proposals to weaken encryption because, according to Ed Davey, encryption is important for individual security and helping businesses to thrive.

In 2018, after the government's Investigatory Powers Act mass surveillance law was declared to be in breach of EU law, Ed Davey commented that UK surveillance needed a "major overhaul" which puts "our freedoms and civil liberties at its very core" Ed Davey's party opposes the mass surveillance law and had voted against it.

Ed Davey is supportive of market solutions in the conventional energy sector, The Guardian describing him as a 'zealot' for markets.

Ed Davey has been highly critical of price controls such as those proposed by former Labour leader Ed Miliband; he considers them to be detrimental to competition and lowering prices for consumers.

Ed Davey has supported "properly designed and carefully targeted" short-term subsidies for some emerging green energy technologies in order to meet climate change targets.

When cutting green energy subsidies as Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey said he "tended to try and marketise the reduction so people were competing for any remaining subsidies" through Contracts for difference.

Ed Davey has argued in favour of both nuclear power and fracking as potential energy sources, and natural gases as transitional fuels, though he has warned that there should not be an over-reliance on them.

In May 2021, alongside celebrities and other public figures, Ed Davey was a signatory to an open letter from Stylist magazine which called on the government to address what it described as an "epidemic of male violence" by funding an "ongoing, high-profile, expert-informed awareness campaign on men's violence against women and girls".

Ed Davey criticised Boris Johnson after the 2021 North Shropshire by-election where a Lib Dem candidate, Helen Morgan overturned a Conservative majority of nearly 23,000 to win the seat.

Since the 2000s, Ed Davey has been vocal on the issue of detention without trial, in particular Guantanamo and Bagram, which he believed required transparency and formal investigation of torture allegations.

Ed Davey has been in support of trade to import natural gas from countries including the United States and Qatar, and importation of green energy via new interconnectors from Norway and Ireland.

Ed Davey describes himself as a "strong free-trader", rejecting reciprocity in trade tariffs as "the classic protectionist argument".

Ed Davey took up several business appointments after leaving his role as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in May 2015.

Ed Davey set up an independent consultancy in September 2015 to provide advice on energy and climate change.

In January 2016 Ed Davey was appointed as a part-time consultant to MHP Communications, the public relations and lobbying firm representing EDF Energy.

Ed Davey was criticised by press commentators for the potential conflict of interest between his previous role as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and his role at MHP.

Until February 2021, Ed Davey was on the advisory boards of the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills and of the fund manager NextEnergy Capital, which manages the listed company NextEnergy Solar Fund; he resigned both roles in the wake of the parliamentary second jobs controversy.

Ed Davey is the Chair of the All-Party Britain-Republic of Korea Parliamentary Group.

Ed Davey is the Chair of the APPG on Charity Retail, the Vice Chair of the APPG for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, and the Vice Chair of the APPG on Land Value Capture.

On 28 November 2024, Ed Davey released the Christmas charity single "Love is Enough" featuring the Bath Philharmonia choir, entering the race to secure the Christmas number one.

John has severe learning and physical disabilities due to an undiagnosed neurological condition and requires round-the-clock care, which is provided by Ed Davey and Gasson as well as external carers, and is a key reason behind Ed Davey's advocacy for carers.

The family lives in Surbiton, where Ed Davey lived before his election to Parliament in 1997.

In 1995, Ed Davey won a Royal Humane Society bravery award and commendation from the Chief constable of the British Transport Police for rescuing a woman who had fallen onto the railway line in the face of an oncoming train at Clapham Junction railway station.

Ed Davey was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council on 8 February 2012, giving him the honorific prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.