Colin Breed

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Colin Edward Breed (born May 4, 1947) British politician. He is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for South East Cornwall.

Colin Breed was born just after the war in London, the son of a chef and he was educated at Torquay Grammar School. He was appointed as an area manager with the Midland Bank in 1964, after 17 years with the bank, he became the managing director of Dartington & Co Ltd in 1981, before becoming a director with Gemini Abrasives in 1992 until his election to Westminster.

He was elected as a councillor to both the Caradon District Council and to the Saltash Town Council in 1982. He was appointed as the Mayor of Saltash in 1995. Colin Breed was selected to contest the parliamentary seat of Cornwall South East at the 1997 General Election. The sitting Conservative MP Robert Hicks was retiring. The 1997 General Election saw losses for the Conservatives across the UK and Breed was comfortably elected as the new Liberal Democrat MP for Cornwall South East with a majority of 6,480, and he had held the seat since. He made his maiden speech on June 24, 1997 on the preservation of plant varieties.

In Parliament, Colin Breed was appointed as a Liberal Democrat spokesman on Trade and Industry by Paddy Ashdown in 1997. When Charles Kennedy was elected as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1999, Breed was promoted to the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Agriculture minister. In the same year he became a member of the General Medical Council.

Colin Breed was dropped from the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet following the 2001 General Election, but was appointed as a spokesman on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, before moving to speak on Defence in 2002. He returned to be a spokesman on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs following the 2005 General Election.

Colin Breed is a Methodist lay preacher and votes conservatively on issues such as homosexuality. He has been married to Janet Courtiour since 1968 and they have a son and a daughter.

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