Edward Leigh

Edward Leigh

Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (born 20 July 1950) is a British Conservative politician. He has sat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Gainsborough in Lincolnshire since 1997, and for its predecessor constituency of Gainsborough and Horncastle between 1983 and 1997. He served as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee since 2001, but stepped down at the end of the parliamentary session in 2010 as it is customary for a member of the opposition party to hold this post.

Apart from being dubbed "the Viscount" upon his arrival in the Commons, in allusion to his landed gentry background, he also gained a reputation owing to his staunch opposition to abortion, contraception and controversialgenetic research, for his support of capital punishment and for his defence of Section 28, which made Local Authorities not allowed to "promote the teaching in any maintained-school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship". However, he has since reversed his support for capital punishment.

These strongly held beliefs derive from his Roman Catholic upbringing. Leigh himself was an opponent of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and voted against it in Parliament at its Second Reading. Once passed, Leigh proposed an amendment to the Act to extend the property and pension rights afforded by civil partnerships to siblings who had lived together for more than 12 years. This was opposed by many backers of the initial Bill, such as frontbench Conservative MP Alan Duncan, who considered it a wrecking amendment.

A veteran backbencher, Leigh was encouraged to challenge for the Speakership of the House of Commons, and after the 2010 General Election for one of the Deputy Speakerships, but chose not to pursue this ambition for the time being since parliamentary convention precludes members of the governing party being elected to such high office, unless already in situ. He speaks regularly in the House, mainly on civil liberties, constitutional, ecclesiastical and economic matters.