Constituency : Montgomeryshire 1997-2010
Lembit was one of the more colourful characters to grace the party in recent years. He took over from Alex Carlile at Montgomeryshire.
Lembit was the son of Estonian refugees who settled in Belfast. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Bristol University where he was President of the Student Union in the mid-eighties. He started work as a brand assistant at Proctor & Gamble and eventually became global HR training manager. He also had an interest in a shoe shop. He stood for Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central in 1992 coming third but he was successful in getting elected to the city council that year. He stood for Northumbria in the European elections in 1994.
Lembit was successively spokesperson for education, Northern Ireland, Wales, business and housing. In 1998 he survived a serious accident while paragliding. He was leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2001 to 2007. He jointly chaired the Middle Way Group supporting the regulation of hunting.
Lembit appeared regularly on TV shows revealing a quirky sense of humour and a passion for eccentric causes such as the asteroid threat and the Segway scooter. This didn't endear him to everyone in the party and he was well beaten by Simon Hughes for the party presidency in 2004.
Lembit increased his majority in 2001 and 2005 but after that his thirst for publicity and the boredom that comes with perpetual opposition got the better of him. In 2006, he, pretty much alone, backed Charles Kennedy to stay and then got behind Mark Oaten's ill-fated leadership bid, prompting talk of "the curse of Lembit". He was part of a celebrity couple with Welsh weather girl Sian Lloyd and won a substantial sum for charity with her on Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in 2006. A few months later, they split up and her autobiography denounced him as a drunken womaniser. Lloyd wasn't nearly as loved as she imagined and Lembit would probably have survived that had he not taken up with Gabriela Irimia of tiresome soft porn pop act The Cheeky Girls who was seventeen years his junior. His insistence that they had an intellectual connection only made it seem worse. He was trounced by Ros Scott who wasn't even an MP when he stood for President again in 2008. He split up with Irimia at the end of that year but the damage was done.
In 2010 Lembit was narrowly defeated by the Tory candidate costing the party one of their hitherto safest seats. He compounded the anger felt by many in the party by appearing on Have I Got News For You the following night and not seeming too bothered about it. He launched himself as a stand-up comedian soon afterwards which didn't really work out though he kept himself busy on the reality TV circuit. He was rejected for the party's London mayor candidate in 2012. Later that year, he got a proper job as a training manager for Leadenhall Consulting then a year later became director of communications for the Motorcycle Action Group. He also has a regular radio show on Radio Kent. Last year , he was said to be considering running for president of Estonia.
He is now 54.
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