David Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool

David Patrick Paul Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, KCSG, KCMCO (born 15 March 1951) is a British politician. He is a former Liberal Party and later Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament who has sat as a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 1997 when he was made a life peer.

Political Career

Alton was elected as Member of Parliament for Liverpool Edge Hill at a by-election in 1979 for the Liberal Party, when he became the "Baby of the House". When the Edge Hill constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election, he was elected as for the new Liverpool Mossley Hill constituency.

From 1979 to 1988 he served, at various times, as spokesman on the environment, home affairs, Northern Ireland and as Chief Whip. He is known for his strongly pro-life position on abortion, and in 1987 he resigned as Chief Whip to campaign for his unsuccessful private member's bill which aimed to stop late abortions. He became a Liberal Democrats MP when the Liberal Party merged with the SDP in 1988, but he had difficult relations with parts of the party, especially over attempts to make the party adopt a pro-choice position on abortion. In 1992, he announced that he would not stand again as a Liberal Democrat after the party passed a policy that he believed committed the party to support for abortion for the first time. However, he withdrew from this, after a motion passed in Spring 1993 that stated that the party had no position on the substantive issue of abortion.

He stood down as an MP at the 1997 general election. He was made a life peer as Baron Alton of Liverpool, of Mossley Hill in the County of Merseyside as a personal choice of John Major in the Dissolution Honours, and took his seat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.

Lord Alton is chairman of the British-DPRK All-Party Parliamentary Group, and visited Pyongyang in October 2010 when he had talks with leaders of the North Korean government including Choe Thae Bok, chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, the country's rubber-stamp parliament.

Education

Born in London on 15 March 1951, Alton was educated at the Campion School, Hornchurch, Greater London, and Christ's College of Education, Liverpool.

External References

http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-alton-of-liverpool/738