Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (pronounced /ˈlɛdsəm/;^[1] née Salmon; born 13 May 1963)^[2][3][4] is a British politician.

She was first elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Northamptonshire at the 2010 general election.^[5][6] Leadsom has served as Minister of State for Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change since 11 May 2015, having held the post of Economic Secretary to the Treasury from April 2014.^[7] She supported the Leave campaign during the 2016 EU referendum. Following the victory of the Leave campaign and David Cameron's resignation, she became one of five candidates in the election for the leadership of the Tory party and to become the next Prime Minister; she came in a distant second to Theresa May in the first vote. Leadsom said she would conduct swift negotiations with the European Union if she became PM.^[8].

Early life and career

Leadsom was born in Aylesbury, the daughter of Richard and Judy Salmon. She attended Tonbridge Girls' Grammar School before reading Political Science at the University of Warwick.^[3]

After graduating in 1987, Leadsom began a career in the financial sector as a debt trader for Barclays de Zoete Wedd, then the investment bank division of Barclays Bank.^[9] For Barclays itself, she was a Director in the Financial Institutions team from 1993. In this role, she was given a "ringside seat" in the collapse of Barings Bank.^[10] Leadsom clashed with Barclay Investments then head Bob Diamond, who tried to persuade her to return to full-time work soon after a pregnancy, and she left the company in 1997 as a director of its financial institutions group.^[9]

Leadsom became a managing director during 1997 of her brother in law's hedge fund, De Putron Fund Management (DPFM), remaining in the post until 1999.^[11] Peter de Putron is her sister's husband.^[9] However, according to documents at Companies House, Leadsom was registered as the Marketing Director working for DPFM for 13 months from 1998.^[12]

Leadsom was Head of Corporate Governance and a Senior Investment Officer at Invesco Perpetual from 1999 to 2009. ^[3][13] According to a former colleague "the problem about these claims is that they risk misleading people into believing that she has finance management skills and experience which qualify her for senior posts in government"; her actual job was to work (sometimes part-time) on “special projects”, mostly for the Chief Investment Officer, which included negotiating pay terms for senior fund managers – towards the end of her time, she advised on a number of governance issues, but she had no-one reporting to her in either role.^[14] Approval for individuals to manage funds or deal with clients is needed from the financial services regulator (then the Financial Services Authority), which Leadsom held from December 2002 to February 2003.^[12]

Before becoming an MP in 2010, Leadsom was a Councillor on South Oxfordshire District Council between 2003 and 2007.^[3][15] She contested Knowsley South constituency in the 2005 general election^[3][15] and was a member of the Conservative A-List.^[16]

Parliamentary career

Leadsom was selected to stand as the parliamentary candidate in the newly created South Northamptonshire constituency in June 2006. In 2009, ConservativeHome said that she was "defending a notional Conservative majority of 11,356."^[17] At the 2010 general election in May, she was elected with a majority of more than 20,000. On entering the House of Commons she was appointed a member of the Treasury Select Committee.^[15] She made her maiden speech on 22 June 2010 during the budget debate, when she spoke of restoring health to the financial sector drawing from personal experience in financial regulation, particularly with Barings Bank.^[18]

Leadsom campaigned for EU reform. In September 2011, she co-founded the Fresh Start Project with Conservative MPs Chris Heaton-Harris and George Eustice, to "research and build support for realistic and far-reaching proposals for reforming the EU".^[19][20] On 25 October 2011, Leadsom was one of 81 Conservative MPs to defy the party whip and vote in favour of holding a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.^[21]

In July 2012, during the Libor scandal, she was widely reported on for her effective investigation of mismanagement of risk in banks, during the Treasury Committee's questioning of Bob Diamond.^[22] At a subsequent hearing she questioned Paul Tucker who stated that the previous government had not conspired with the Bank to fix rates. In a BBC interview, Leadsom stated that the suggestion "has now been completely squashed by Paul Tucker", and that on that specific point, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, might want to apologise to Ed Balls for "suggesting he was implicated in rate fixing", although she also pointed out that Balls "still [had] a huge amount to answer for in relation to the scandal and his time in office".^[23] Mike Smithson suggested this could be a reason for Osborne to overlook her for a promotion in the 2012 cabinet reshuffle, despite the fact that "in terms of talent she must be right at the top of the list of 2010 newbies who should be promoted."^[24] In 2012, Leadsom was ranked 91 on Iain Dale's list of top 100 most influential figures from the right.^[25]

Leadsom was one of five MPs to abstain from the Government's Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill by voting in both lobbies.^[26] Leadsom had earlier said she found the wording of the legislation "unacceptable", and that voting no reflected the views of "so many" of her constituents, who felt that the bill was "deeply wrong",^[27] but ultimately chose to abstain, saying

"I find myself genuinely torn...I cannot vote against a measure that would mean so much to the minority of homosexual couples for whom marriage is the ultimate recognition for their genuine feelings for each other. Yet nor can I vote for a measure that risks centuries of faith-based belief in marriage."

In October 2013, Leadsom was appointed by David Cameron to serve on the board of the Number 10 Policy Unit, with responsibility for part of the public services brief.^[28][29]

Economic Secretary to the Treasury

On 9 April 2014 Leadsom was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury following Maria Miller's resignation from the Cabinet. According to the Financial Times Her period as City minister was seen by departmental officials as "a disaster" ... "The worst minister we ever had" ... "She found it difficult to understand issues or take decisions, She was monomaniacal, seeing the EU as the source of every problem. She alienated officials by continually complaining about poor drafting".^[30]

Inheritance tax

Around 1997, she formed the company Bandal with her husband, and invested in a buy-to-let dwellings in Oxford and Surrey. Bandal was financed by offshore bank loans from the Jersey arm of Kleinwort Benson, a private bank.^[9] Following her appointment, it was discovered that Leadsom had transferred her shares in the property company, which she had started with her husband in 2003, into a trust fund for her children to avoid inheritance tax, albeit legally.^[9] The offshore banking arrangements for the property company, however, were in apparent contradiction to George Osborne's attempts to crack down on tax avoidance.^[31] A spokesperson for Leadsom said: “This is a normal corporate situation and all tax that is due is being paid. None of the loans for the properties are based offshore”.

Donations from family firm

There was further criticism when it was revealed that she had received a series of donations totalling £70,000 from a firm based in London but owned by her Guernsey-based brother-in-law, Peter de Putron, via a holding company in the British Virgin Islands tax haven.^[32] Leadsom's husband Ben is a director of the firm which made the donations, which were used to pay the salaries of staff in Leadsom's Westminster office after her election as MP; the firm has also made donations of £816,000 to the Conservative party.^[33] Because the firm making the donations, Gloucester Research (later becoming GR Software and Research) was based in London the donations conformed to the rule banning political donations from abroad. The Labour MP Tom Watson said: “These very large donations might be within the rules, but it certainly isn’t right that a Treasury minister has been taking money in this way. Most reasonable people will see this as completely unreasonable”.^[32]

Minister of State at DECC

Leadsom was re-elected as MP for South Northamptonshire on 7 May 2015 with 36,607 votes, compared to her nearest rival Lucy Mills (Labour), with 10,191 votes. On 11 May 2015, Leadsom was moved from Economic Secretary to the Treasury, to be appointed Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change.^[34] This was despite her previous opposition to wind farms and European Renewable energy targets.^[35]

Brexit Referendum

Leadsom took a prominent role in the campaign to leave the EU in the June 2016 referendum campaign. Leadsom argued that the Bank of England's governor, Mark Carney, had destabilised financial markets and jeopardised the Bank's independence by warning of short-term negative effects on the economy by leaving the EU.^[36][37]

In the BBC's 2-hour televised debate on the EU referendum, Leadsom appeared on the "Leave" panel, along with Gisela Stuart and Boris Johnson.^[38] Leadsom rejected claims that the UK should pursue single market membership, and said in response that 80% of the world's economy, and most EU free trade deals, are not even within the single market. She also said that the UK economy is too large to need the single market, but is being hindered by the extreme slowness of EU trade procedures.^[39]

Conservative leadership election

Immediately following the referendum vote on 23 June 2016 for Britain to leave the EU, David Cameron announced that he would resign as Prime Minister by October. Soon Leadsom emerged amongst the early favourites with the bookies to become the next Prime Minister, and was also strongly linked with a possible role as Chancellor.^[40] On 30 June 2016 she announced her candidacy to become leader of the Conservative Party.

In the first round of voting on 5 July 2016, Theresa May received support from 165 MPs, while Leadsom finished in second place with 66 votes.^[41]

On 6 July 2016, The Times published an article which asserted that Leadsom had overstated her experience and responsibilities while working in the private sector.^[12] The article quoted a former co-worker who indicated she had exaggerated her CV and a comment from a Leadsom spokesperson: "anyone who reads Andrea’s CV and attaches a lot of weight to that particular role may actually be under some slight misapprehension as to what it was she actually did." The Independent repeated the claim that "during her time at Invesco Perpetual Ms Leadsom was only approved by the financial services regulator for three months". Penny Mordaunt, a Leadsom supporter, suggested this was "a concerted effort to rubbish a stellar career".^[42][43] and the Financial Times suggested that "Mrs Leadsom may have been playing her own minor game of Catch Me If You Can."^[44][42]

The Daily Telegraph suggested "Judging by this morning's headlines, there's an attempt being made to rubbish Andrea Leadsom. Allegations she massaged her qualifications in the financial world have been vigorously denied by her team".^[45] However she admitted that her claim to have been Director, Financial Institutions Group at Barclays was false and she was in fact only Deputy Director.^[46]

Views on the European Union

In April 2013 at the Hansard Society’s annual parliamentary affairs lecture, Leadsom warned against the UK leaving the European Union, stating that "I think it would be a disaster for our economy and it would lead to a decade of economic and political uncertainty at a time when the tectonic plates of global success are moving.^[47][48]

However, in 2016 Andrea Leadsom campaigned for leave in the UK referendum on European Union membership. The Mail on Sunday reproduced her earlier comments in its issue of 3 July 2016.^[47] After her comments were read out by Andrew Marr on his Sunday morning BBC programme, she explained to Marr how she reached her more recent position: "It has been a journey. When I came into Parliament, like most people in the country I'd grown up as part of the EU and it's absolutely part of our DNA and I came into Parliament, set up something called the Fresh Start Project, which took hundreds and hundreds of hours of evidence about how the EU impacts on the UK – on everything from immigration to fisheries and so on... During that process I travelled all across Europe with lots of parliamentary colleagues – up to 100 Conservative colleagues supporting this work – to try and get a really decent, fundamental reform of the EU."^[47]

A spokesperson for Leadsom told The Independent that the recording was "taken completely out of context". because she opened the lecture by saying that the EU, however, needed major reforms in order for it to be "sustainable". She added that the democratic consent for the EU in Britain was "wafer thin".^[47]

Charity

Leadsom was involved with NORPIP, the Northamptonshire Parent Infant Partnership, a charity providing therapeutic support to help parents bond with their babies who have insecure attachment, and with PIPUK, the national body for Parent Infant Partnerships which set up branches in four further counties since its inception.^[49][50][51]

Personal life

She married Ben Leadsom in 1993 and has two sons and one daughter.^[3] Following the birth of her first child, she suffered from postnatal depression for several months.^[52]

Leadsom states that Christianity has a central role in her life. She told Tim Ross of The Daily Telegraph: "I am a very committed Christian. I think my values and everything I do is driven by that." She participates in "various Bible studies groups" with other parliamentarians and prays "all the time".^[20]

References

External links

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Debrett's People of Today