Political Career
Howarth was a member of Cambridge City Council from 1987 to 2004, becoming leader of the Lib Dem group in 1990, and then becoming leader of the council when the Liberal Democrats took control in 2000. In the 2005 general election he was elected Member of Parliament for Cambridge, defeating Labour MP Anne Campbell with a majority of 4,339 votes (and winning 44% of the votes cast). He was the first Liberal or Liberal Democrat to win Cambridge since the 1906 general election.
Howarth served on the Liberal Democrats' Federal Executive and Federal Policy Committees during the 1990s. He was a leading opponent within the Lib Dems of closer links to the Labour Party after the 1997 General Election, bringing him into conflict with Paddy Ashdown.
In the Liberal Democrat leadership election following Charles Kennedy's resignation in early 2006, Howarth was active in supporting Chris Huhne's campaign.
His performances in the British parliament were recognised in 2006 when he was shortlisted for The House Magazine's 'Backbencher of the Year award'. The citation read "Brought MPs’ attention to the ‘hidden’ effects of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill". This was after he highlighted the side-effects of the original bill, which as originally drafted, would "give ministers power to alter any law passed by Parliament". Since "the Bill, bizarrely, even applies to itself, so that ministers could propose orders to remove the limitations" that were in the original bill, it would have effectively given unlimited power to ministers, and made parliament redundant. Howarth described the original bill as an "Abolition of Parliament Bill", and successfully lobbied for significant changes before it was passed into law.
After his election, he became a Liberal Democrat spokesperson on local government and then energy, before specialising in shadowing the Ministry of Justice, as the Liberal Democrat Shadow Solicitor General between 2007 and 2009. Between January 2009 and May 2010, he was the Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Justice.
He was one of the relatively few MPs not implicated in the 2009 expenses scandal, being singled out by The Guardian as one of the "Angels" for having " not claimed a penny in second home allowances" and commuting the 60 miles from Cambridge to Westminster.
On 5 November 2009, he announced that he would be standing down as MP for Cambridge at the next election, citing a desire to return to academia.
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