Norman Baker - Parliamentary Career

Parliamentary Career

Baker contested Lewes at the 1992 general election, but was defeated by the sitting Conservative Party MP Tim Rathbone. He stood again at the 1997 election, and this time won the seat with a majority of 1,300 votes over Rathbone, becoming Lewes's first non-Conservative MP since 1874.

Baker is known for uncovering scandals and conflicts of interest among MPs and the government, and has one of the highest profiles of any backbench MP. In his first three months in the House of Commons, he asked more questions than Rathbone had asked in 23 years. A dogged investigator and exponent of Freedom of Information, his consistent questioning of Peter Mandelson led to Mandelson's second resignation from government, and he has also raised issues about Lord Birt and his role as Tony Blair's adviser. After compiling figures in 2002 which revealed that the government's fleet of ministerial cars had grown to its largest ever size, he began in January 2005 to campaign to force disclosure of the details of MPs' expenses under the Freedom of Information Act, finally succeeding in February 2007. He suffered embarrassment when The Daily Telegraph published details of his own expense claims, which included £3000 for "office rental", although he in fact uses a room in his home for office purposes. In October 2001 he won a test case in the High Court, when the National Security Appeals panel ruled that the Data Protection Act required the Security Service MI5 to allow him access to information which he believed the security service holds on him, the first time this had happened in the 92-year history of MI5. The Daily Mail described him as having 'consistently been a thorn in the Government's side'. In 2001 he was named "Inquisitor of the Year" in the Zurich/Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards and, in February 2002, he won the Channel 4 Opposition MP of the Year Award.

Baker is regarded as coming from the left-wing of the party, and is a member of the Beveridge Group within the Liberal Democrats. A staunch republican, he is also well known for his vocal support for animal rights groups, and he is a strong proponent for greater protection of animals under law. Described in 1997 by The Times columnist Matthew Parris as a "classic House of Commons bore", his speeches were compared by Labour MP Stephen Pound with "root canal surgery without anaesthetic", but Parris added in 2001 "You underestimate him at your peril. He has a habit of being right."