David Heath

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This article is about the politician. For the professional wrestler (most well-known by the alias Gangrel), see David Heath (wrestler).

Image:David Heath.jpg David William St. John Heath CBE (born March 16, 1954) British politician. He is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Somerton and Frome and is the Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. He ran for the deputy leadership of the Liberal Democrats in 2006 and came third in the first round.

David Heath was born in Westbury-sub-Mendip in the Mendip Hills of Somerset and was educated at the Millfield School, Street and St John's College, Oxford where he was awarded a master's degree in physiological science. He went on to study ophthalmic optics at the City University, London. He worked as a practising optician for seventeen years from 1979. He became a parliamentary consultant to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature in 1990, before joining Age Concern in the same capacity in 1991. He has worked for various other charities as a consultant since 1995.

He was elected as a Liberal councillor to the Somerset County Council in 1985, becoming the leader of the council 1985-9 and remaining as the Liberal Democrat group leader until 1991, he stood down from the council in 1997. He unsuccessfully contested Somerton and Frome at the 1992 General Election where he was defeated by the new Conservative MP Mark Robinson by 4,341 votes. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 General Election when he ousted Robinson at Somerton and Frome by just 130 votes and has remained the MP there since. Although his majority has risen at each subsequent election, it remains at just 812. He made his maiden speech on May 21, 1997.[1]

In parliament he served on the foreign affairs select committee for two years from 1997 and at the same time was appointed as a frontbench spokesman on foreign affairs by Paddy Ashdown, and became a agriculture, fisheries and food spokesman under the new leadership of Charles Kennedy in 1999. Following the 2001 General Election he became a spokesman on work and pensions as well as serving as a member of the science and technology select committee, before speaking on home affairs from 2003. He joined Kennedy's shadow cabinet following the 2005 General Election and is both the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs. He has been a member of the modernisation select committee since 2005, and is the vice chairman of the all party groups on United Nations, Romania and the group on eye health and visual impairment. He is also the treasurer of the pharmacy group.

He has been married to Catherine Netherton since 1987 and they have a son and a daughter; they live in the constituency at Witham Friary. He was the chairman of the Avon and Somerset Police Authority for three years from 1993. He became a Commander of the British Empire in 1989 and he used to breed pigs.

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