Adrian Sanders - Political Career

Political Career

Sanders joined the Liberal Party in 1979 and in 1985 was elected Vice President of the National League of Young Liberals. He was a Torbay Borough councillor 1984-86. From 1986-89 he lived in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, working for the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors before moving back to Paignton in 1990.

During 1992-93 Sanders worked in the office of Paddy Ashdown, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, and organised the 'Beyond Westminster' Tour. He then moved to become a policy officer at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (1993–94) and then the Southern Association of Voluntary Action Groups for Europe.

Sanders stood unsuccessfully for the seat of Torbay 1992 general election, but did manage to reduce the Conservative majority from 8,820 to 5,787. In the 1994 European Election he stood for the Devon and East Plymouth constituency, narrowly losing because one of the candidates, Richard Huggett, stood as a Literal Democrat and attracted 10,000 votes. The case prompted a change in the law, banning potentially confusing party descriptions.

In the 1997 general election Sanders stood again in Torbay, this time successfully, defeating the Conservative incumbent Rupert Allason by a majority of 12 votes. In the 2001 general election Sanders increased his majority to 6,708, but it fell back to 2,029 at the 2005 general election before rising to 4,078 in the 2010 General Election.

Following the 2001 election, Sanders was made the Liberal Democrat spokesman for Tourism, and was subsequently moved to the position of Deputy Chief Whip of the Party in Parliament, which he currently holds. He is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Diabetes, sits on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and is a member of the centre-left Beveridge Group within the Liberal Democrats.

In the 2006 Leadership election contest Adrian supported Sir Menzies Campbell QC MP. In the December 2007 leadership election Adrian remained neutral, citing his position as Deputy Chief Whip. He wrote afterwards that he had voted for Chris Huhne MP who narrowly lost to Nick Clegg.

Sanders uses the Facebook and Myspace social networking sites to communicate with voters and others and since 2007 has produced a regular blog. In December 2008 Sanders produced his first video cast.

In October 2008 Sanders was nominated alongside seven other MPs and Peers for the first Diabetes UK Parliamentarian of the Year award. In the same month, during the Liberal Democrats party conference it is alleged that he was involved in a disagreement with the chairman of Liberal Vision, Mark Littlewood. According to reports, Littlewood fell to the ground during the disagreement which it was alleged had been prompted by Littlewood's claim that a number of Liberal Democrat seats would be at risk from the Conservatives at the next election.

Sanders was awarded the Diabetes UK 75th Anniversary Award at a ceremony in the House of Commons on Wednesday 21 January 2009. In July 2010, he received the League Against Cruel Sports’ Parliamentarian of the Year Award.

In April 2009, Sanders appeared in The Sunday Telegraph list of best value MPs. At the height of the expenses scandal, he opened his complete 'unredacted' expenses file to his local newspaper, the Herald Express. In December 2009 he received the all clear from Sir Thomas Legg, following an audit of the previous five years accounts.

In October 2011, along with 110 other MPs in the House of Commons, he voted for the motion to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union. He was the only Liberal Democrat MP to do so.

In May 2012, Sanders was the one Liberal Democrat on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee on phone hacking and provided the swing vote on the release of a report. Sanders joined with the five Labour committee members and against the four Conservative members to support the report which said in part that Rupert Murdoch was "'not fit' to run an international company". Nick Clegg, LD leader and deputy prime minister in the Conservative-LD coalition, at the time said "Adrian Sanders is entirely free to do what he wants" and that the committee report "left 'very, very big question marks' about corporate governance of News Corp", according to the Financial Times.