Constituency : Somerton and Frome 1997-2015
David narrowly won Somerton and Frome from the Tories at the second attempt. He told Paddy Ashdown at the count that he thought he'd just failed but instead he won by 130 votes. He actually got fewer votes than in 1992.
David was born in Somerset. He was educated at Millfield School and Oxford. He became an optometrist. He became a lobbyist for the World Wide Fund for Nature in 1990 before moving on to Age Concern. In 1985, he was elected to Somerset County Council and immediately became the youngest ever county council leader. David has also bred pigs.
David always had a hard fight for his seat. He increased his majority to 668 in 2001, then inched up to 812 in 2005. The arrival of Annunziata Rees-Mogg as the Tory candidate made things more comfortable for him in 2010 when he won by 1,812 votes.
David was a spokesman on foreign affairs under Paddy Ashdown then switched to agriculture, fisheries and food under Charles Kennedy. He moved through work and pensions, home affairs, justice, constitutional affairs and shadow Leader of the House and was regarded as a safe pair of hands. He ran for the deputy leadership in 2006 coming third. He was temporarily dropped from the frontbench for supporting a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon in 2008 but returned in 2009.
David became Deputy Leader of the Commons in a congenial partnership with the wet Tory George Young. In 2012, he was switched to become an agriculture minister. He was dropped in 2013 and announced his intention to step down at the next election almost immediately.
He is now 65.
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