David Laws, the Liberal Democrat MP and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury has been telling Portland about how the Coalition Government is doing far better than he expected. Laws, one of the architects of the deal that tied his party to the Conservatives, says that being in Government and ‘making the tough choices’ is far preferable to the ‘wilderness years’ of life in opposition.
Mr Laws spoke to George Pascoe-Watson just before a packed (and noisy!) event involving Portland clients and friends.
About David Laws
David was born in 1965 in Surrey. He was educated at St. George’s College, Weybridge before attending at Kings College Cambridge where he received a double first in economics.
He went on to work as an investment banker at both JP Morgan and Barclays de Zoete Wedd, before leaving the city to become economic adviser to the Liberal Democrats in 1994. Three years later, he went on to become the party’s Director of Policy and Research.
In 1997, David fought Michael Howard at Folkestone and Hythe, and he was elected as MP for Yeovil in 2001 – succeeding Paddy Ashdown with a majority of 3928.
His re-election in 2005 was followed by his appointment as Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. So far, David has focused his energies on producing a new pension policy paper, putting pressure on the Government to sort out the tax credit system and calling for reform of the CSA, and looking closely at proposed reforms on incapacity and housing benefit.
In 2007, Sir Menzies Campbell appointed David as the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.
David was re-elected as MP for Yeovil Constituency in 2010 with a majority of 13,036. David was one of the lead negotiators for the Liberal Democrats, part of the team of four that negotiated a deal to go into a governing coalition with the Conservatives.