Constituency : Bradford East 2010-15
David took Bradford East from Labour by 365 votes.
David is a plumbers son from Lincoln. He was educated at Boston Grammar School and the Uiversity of Bradford. He is a qualified public sector accountant. He became a lecturer in finance and strategic management at Leeds Polytechnic where he also had a management role in generating external income. He became a Bradford councillor in 1984. His particular interest was education. In 2004 he was seconded to Bradford City FC to work on building links with the local Asian community. He stood for Bradford North in a by-election in 1990 coming a distant second. He stood there again in 1992 coming third. He stood there again in 2001 and 2005, moving up to second place in the latter election.
David served on the Business, Innovation and Skills and Education select committees.
In 2013, David was reprimanded by the party for a statement on his website expressing sadness that "the Jews" who suffered at Auschwitz should commit atrocities against the Palestinians on a daily basis. He later apologised for the offence his words had caused. A few months later he tweeeted "Am I right or am I wrong? At long last the Zionists are losing the battle - how long can the apartheid state of Israel continue to exist ?" and was suspended from the party for three months. The chief whip Alistair Carmichael wrote " These interventions cause considerable offence rather than addressing questions of political substance about the plight of the Palestinian people and the right of Israel's citizens to live a life free of violence". In 2013 he made the observation that "it's a shame there isn't a powerful, well-funded Board of Deputies for Roma" and in 2014 tweeted that he would probably fire a rocket at Israel if he lived in Gaza. The chair of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel described him as "an ignorant political opportunist...neither a Liberal nor a Democrat". He tweeted "Je suis # Palestinian" after the murder of four Jews in Paris in 2015.
In 2015 Labour easily re-took David's seat. He was re-elected to the council the following year. In 2017 Theresa May referred to his "questionable record on antisemitism". He was deselected as a candidate but stood as an Independent and came third, well ahead of the Liberal Democrat candidate. Tim Farron sad he was "unfit to represent the party".
Earlier this year, David claimed to have been readmitted to the party but that has been disputed.
He is now 66.
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