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Alan Beith

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Alan James Beith, Baron Beith, PC (born 20 April 1943) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who represented Berwick-upon-Tweed as its Member of Parliament (MP) from 1973 to 2015.[1][2]

The Right Honourable
The Lord Beith
PC
Official portrait, 2019
Chair of the Liaison Committee
In office
21 July 2010 – 30 March 2015
Preceded byAlan Williams
Succeeded byAndrew Tyrie
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats
In office
11 April 1992 – 12 February 2003
LeaderPaddy Ashdown
Charles Kennedy
Preceded byRussell Johnston
Succeeded byMenzies Campbell
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party
In office
1985–1988
LeaderDavid Steel
Preceded byJohn Pardoe (1979)
Succeeded byRussell Johnston (Liberal Democrats)
Frontbench positions
Liberal Democrat Leader of the House of Commons
In office
29 August 1999 – 15 May 2003
LeaderCharles Kennedy
Preceded byCharles Kennedy
Succeeded byPaul Tyler
Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs
In office
12 July 1994 – 29 August 1999
LeaderPaddy Ashdown
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded bySimon Hughes
Liberal Chief Whip in the House of Commons
In office
1977–1985
LeaderDavid Steel
Preceded byCyril Smith
Succeeded byDavid Alton
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
19 October 2015
Life peerage
Member of Parliament
for Berwick-upon-Tweed
In office
8 November 1973 – 30 March 2015
Preceded byAntony Lambton
Succeeded byAnne-Marie Trevelyan
Personal details
Born (1943-04-20) 20 April 1943 (age 81)
Poynton, Cheshire, England
Political partyLiberal (before 1988)
Liberal Democrats (1988–present)
Spouses
Barbara Ward
​
​
(m. 1965; died 1998)​
​
​
(m. 2001; died 2020)​
Children2
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
Nuffield College, Oxford
WebsiteOfficial website

From 1992 to 2003 he was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. By 2015 he was the longest-serving member of his party's House of Commons delegation, and was the last Liberal Democrat MP to have experience of Parliament in the 1970s.

Beith was elevated as a life peer in the 2015 Dissolution Honours List[3] and took his title and a seat on the House of Lords Opposition benches on 23 November 2015.[4]

Early life

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Balliol College, Oxford

The son of John Beith, of Scottish extraction, he was born in 1943 at Poynton in Cheshire. He was educated at The King's School, Macclesfield before going to Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics graduating in 1964. He then pursued postgraduate studies at Nuffield College, receiving a Bachelor of Letters (BLitt) degree.[5]

In 1966, Beith began his career as a politics lecturer at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1969 he was elected as a Councillor on Hexham Rural District Council and, in 1970, he was also elected to Corbridge parish council. He contested Berwick-upon-Tweed as the Liberal candidate at the 1970 general election but was heavily defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Antony Lambton.

Parliamentary career

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Beith became a member of Tynedale District Council in 1973. Later that year, Antony Lambton resigned as an MP following a Fleet Street exposé. At the ensuing by-election on 8 November 1973, Beith was narrowly elected by 57 votes, becoming Berwick's first Liberal MP since 1945.

Just three months after his by-election success, Beith was out canvassing his constituents again at the February 1974 general election, being returned to Parliament with an increased majority of 443. Later that same year and still less than a year after entering the House of Commons, Beith had to contest the constituency for a third time in less than a year at the October 1974 general election, retaining his seat with a slender majority of 73 votes.[6] He held his seat with comfortable majorities in the eight further elections he stood in.

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party

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Beith was appointed to the BBC Advisory Council in 1974, and served as a member until 1984. On the election of David Steel as Liberal Leader in 1976, Beith became the Party's Chief Whip in the Commons.[7] After the 1983 general election, he was appointed Liberal Spokesman for Constitutional Affairs. He was elected as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in 1985, in both cases continuing his duties as a Commons Chief Whip.

After the 1987 general election, Beith concentrated his efforts as Liberal Spokesman for Treasury Affairs and stood down from being Liberal Chief Whip after eleven years in post. In 1988, the Liberal and Social Democratic parties merged, initially as the Social and Liberal Democrats.

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats

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Beith stood against Paddy Ashdown in the first leadership election in 1988, an election which Ashdown won by a large margin. Beith stayed on as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats following the 1992 general election under Ashdown until 2003, and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1992. In 1994, he became the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson and continued in post under Charles Kennedy's leadership. After the 2001 general election he briefly became Lib Dem spokesperson for the Lord Chancellor's Department, but left the Lib Dem frontbench in 2002, though remaining its Deputy Leader until the following year.

After standing down from the Lib Dem frontbench he chaired the Commons Constitutional Affairs, and Justice Committees. Following Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation as Leader of the Liberal Democrats on 15 October 2007, Beith was encouraged to stand as a prospective compromise candidate for the Lib Dem leadership. However, via his personal website, he announced his decision not to stand for election as party leader.

Later developments

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On 19 May 2009, Beith was the first MP to declare his candidacy to succeed Speaker Michael Martin, who stood down from the position on 21 June 2009. Beith pledged he was "willing to take on the task of leading reform" were he elected as Commons Speaker.[8] Conservative MP John Bercow won, becoming the 157th Speaker of the House Commons of the United Kingdom.[9]

 
Insignia of a Knight Bachelor

Beith was knighted in the 2008 Birthday Honours.[10]

On 22 May 2009, Beith was reported by The Daily Telegraph to have claimed £117,000 in second home allowances while his wife, Baroness Maddock, claimed £60,000 Lords expenses for sharing the same address.[11]

Replying in writing on both their behalf to The Telegraph journalist's exposé: "It would be quite wrong for the taxpayer to pay twice for the same costs, so we have shared the costs, either by sharing the cost of rent, or by my wife using her allowance towards costs incurred (she normally claims only half the Lords' overnight allowance)", he argued in defence.[12]

Coalition Government

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At the May 2010 general election he was returned as MP for Berwick; however, his majority was reduced by a substantial swing to the Conservatives.

Beith served as Chairman of the Commons Justice[13] and of the Liaison Select Committees until retiring in 2015.

He was one of only four Liberal Democrat MPs to vote against the third reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.[14] He was the only Liberal Democrat MP to oppose recognising Palestine as a state in the Commons vote on 13 October 2014.[15][16]

Beith campaigned throughout his years in the House of Commons for the A1 road to be made a dual carriageway in Northumberland.[17]

Elevation to the House of Lords

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On 7 August 2013, Beith announced that he would retire as an MP at the next election, having at that point represented Berwick-upon-Tweed for 42 years.[18] He was announced as a life peer in the 2015 Dissolution Honours and was created Baron Beith, of Berwick-upon-Tweed in the County of Northumberland on the afternoon of 19 October.[19]

Politics

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Beith is more left-leaning and liberal in social issues, and more right-leaning and conservative economically.

Taxes

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Beith has only voted for reducing VAT once, on 13 December 2008; from then on he voted for raising it.[20] Beith supports higher taxes for alcohol.[21] He always voted against a mansion tax.[22] He also has voted for reducing capital gains tax[23] and corporation tax. He has voted for raising the threshold for paying income tax.

Social

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He voted against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 in its third reading.[24] Beith also voted for smoking bans[25] and against a hunting ban.[26] He supports lowering the voting age to 16.[27] The Liberal Democrats generally support assisted dying; he has voted against it.[28]

Personal life

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Beith was married in 1965 to Barbara Ward, and they had a son and a daughter. His first wife died in 1998, and he then married in 2001 Diana Maddock (née Derbyshire), formerly MP for Christchurch (1993–97).[29]

Until her death on 26 June 2020, Lord Beith and Baroness Maddock divided their time between homes at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, and London SW1; they were one of the few married couples both titled in their own right.[30] Lord Beith serves as President of the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum and of the Historic Chapels Trust, a charity he helped to found and of which he was Chair of Trustees between 2001 and 2014. He is also President of Northumberland Hospital Radio and of the National Liberal Club.[31]

He reportedly speaks French, Norwegian, Swedish and Welsh, and is a keen supporter of heritage matters.[32]

Honours

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Honorary doctorates:

References

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  1. ^ "Mr Alan Beith". Hansard. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Parliamentary career for Lord Beith – MPs and Lords". UK Parliament. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  3. ^ "Dissolution Peerages 2015". Gov.uk. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  4. ^ "House of Lords Official Report 23 November 2015" (PDF). parliament.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  5. ^ "Debrett's People of Today". Archived from the original on 11 March 2016.
  6. ^ "Lord Beith". parliament.uk. 19 October 2015. Archived from the original on 29 July 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  7. ^ a b "Alan Beith". 12 October 2015. Archived from the original on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  8. ^ "First MP discusses run for Speaker". BBC News. 19 May 2009. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
  9. ^ "The Speaker of the House of Commons". parliament.uk. 8 February 2011. Archived from the original on 10 August 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  10. ^ "Salon Archive Issue: 191". sal.org.uk. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  11. ^ Winnett, Robert; Watt, Holly; Prince, Rosa (22 May 2009). "MPs' expenses: cover-up of Ian Gibson and his daughter's cut-price flat deal". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  12. ^ Beith, Alan (22 May 2009). "Beith publishes full Telegraph questions and answers". Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2009.
  13. ^ "Justice Committee Membership". parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 21 November 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
  14. ^ MPs who voted against the Third Reading of the Equal Marriage Bill Archived 12 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Pink News. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  15. ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 13 Oct 2014 (pt 0004)". parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  16. ^ "MPs debate Palestine and Israel". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  17. ^ Retiring MP Sir Alan Beith Archived 21 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Chronicle. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  18. ^ Alan Beith to step down in 2015 Archived 10 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Liberal Democrat Voice (7 August 2013); retrieved 31 January 2014.
  19. ^ "No. 61389". The London Gazette. 23 October 2015. p. 19950.
  20. ^ "Lord Beith, former MP". Archived from the original on 19 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  21. ^ "Lord Beith, former MP". Archived from the original on 19 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  22. ^ "Lord Beith, former MP". Archived from the original on 19 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  23. ^ "Lord Beith, former MP". Archived from the original on 19 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  24. ^ "The Public Whip — Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill — Third Reading – 21 May 2013 at 18:59". Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  25. ^ "Lord Beith, former MP". Archived from the original on 19 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  26. ^ "Lord Beith, former MP". Archived from the original on 19 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  27. ^ "Lord Beith, former MP". Archived from the original on 19 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  28. ^ "Lord Beith, former MP". Archived from the original on 19 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  29. ^ "About Alan Beith". berwicklibdems.org.uk. Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  30. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage & Baronetage (107th ed.). London: Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd. p. 2559 (MADDOCK, LP). ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  31. ^ "National Liberal Club". nlc.org.uk. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  32. ^ Profile Archived 4 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine, georgiangroup.org.uk; accessed 11 February 2016.
  33. ^ "No. 52952". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1992. p. 1.
  34. ^ "No. 59160". The London Gazette. 18 August 2009. p. 1.
  35. ^ "Honorary Degree Congregation". Newcastle University. 1998. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  36. ^ "Honorary degree for Berwick MP Sir Alan Beith". BBC News England. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
  37. ^ "Honorary Graduates". Northumbria University. 2 February 2024. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Berwick-upon-Tweed
1973–2015 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Liberal Chief Whip in the House of Commons
1977–1985 		Succeeded by
Preceded byas Deputy Leader of the Liberals Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party
(position abolished)
1985–1988 		Succeeded byas Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Preceded by Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats
1992–2003 		Succeeded by
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
Baron Beith 		Followed by
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