Constituency : Colne Valley 1966-70, 1974-87
Richard re-established a Liberal presence in Yorkshire by recovering Colne Valley from Labour at the fourth attempt.
Richard was educated at Shrewsbury and Cambridge. He became a merchant banker and accountant. He was a Methodist lay preacher and registered as a conscientious objector in World War Two serving in the Friends Ambulance unit in Normandy and Germany. He stood for Pudsey in 1950 and 1955 coming third on both occasions. He came third in his first attempt at Colne Valley in 1959 but scored 25% of the vote. He moved up to a good second in a by-election in 1963 then failed by just 187 votes in 1964.
Richard was narrowly defeated in 1970 but regained the seat in February 1974 in a campaign marred by the suicide of his son, and held it through a number of tight contests until he retired in 1987. He was party chairman from 1970 and 1972 and the party's recognised economics expert throughout his time as an MP. He helped get the party's finances stable after the antics of Jeremy Thorpe. He helped translate aspirations into organisational reality, setting up the party's local government department in 1961.
Richard helped trigger Jeremy Thorpe's resignation by publicly calling for him to sue Norman Scott.
Richard supported regional devolution, prices and incomes policy and compulsory union ballots.
Richard stayed politically active after standing down, helping to establish the Charter 88 organisation for constitutional reform. He was President of the Yorkshire Federation of Liberal Democrats between 1989 and 1997. He held a number of other public appointments in Yorkshire.
Richard enjoyed beagling and resigned from the party's Animal Welfare Group in 1984 over the issue.
He died in 2003 aged 84.
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