Andrew George (politician) - in Parliament

In Parliament

In the House of Commons, he currently leads the Liberal Democrats DECC (Department for Energy and Climate Change) and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) policy team.

He was made shadow Fisheries Minister by Paddy Ashdown in 1997, a role he undertook until 2007. Under the new leadership of Charles Kennedy in 1999 he also became Shadow Disability Minister as part of the Department of Social Security team. Following the 2001 General Election he joined the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet team as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Liberal Democrats Kennedy. He became Shadow Rural Affairs and Food Secretary in 2002, a role he held until 2005. He was Shadow Secretary of State for International Development from the 2005 general election until 2006, when he stood down from the Liberal Democrat front bench.

From his election victory in 1997 he has campaigned in Parliament on many issues key to Cornwall. An early success was the campaign to win millions of pounds of European economic aid for Cornwall from the Objective One funding programme, for which he chaired the All Party Parliamentary Objective One Group.

On 12 May 2005, George became the first MP to swear his oath of allegiance to the Queen in Cornish. Before joining the Liberal Democrats he was a member of Mebyon Kernow, and was one of the founder members of the Cornish Constitutional Convention, campaigning for a Cornish Assembly. He has been married to Jill Elizabeth Marshall, a nurse, since 1987 and they have a son (Davy) and a daughter (Morvah, born 1987) and live in Hayle.

On 6 January 2006 he was one of the first members of the Liberal Democrat frontbench team to threaten to resign his post if Charles Kennedy had not stood down as leader by 9 January 2006. He was sacked from the frontbench on 8 March by Kennedy's successor, Sir Menzies Campbell.

Andrew George voted in Parliament against Cornwall becoming a Unitary Authority. Local polls commissioned by the District Councils indicated that approximately 80% of the public were opposed to the formation of the Cornish Unitary Authority.

On 29 October 2007 Andrew George issued a press statement which said:- "Just because the Government has approached the whole Regional Devolution agenda in entirely the wrong way, does not mean to say that the project itself should be ditched. If Scotland is benefiting from devolution then Cornwall should learn from this and increase the intensity of its own campaign for devolution to a Cornish Assembly."

George suffers from the autoimmune disease Ankylosing spondylitis and has campaigned for a TNF inhibitor drug treatment to be made available to all patients. He is a member of the National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society's experts panel.

In the 2010 general election, Andrew George's majority was substantially reduced from 11,609 to 1,719. This followed boundary changes to his constituency. He repeated his parliamentary oath in Cornish, as he has done after every election since 1997. He has rebelled against the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government more than any other Liberal Democrat MP