Former Stockport Lib Dem MP Sir Andrew Stunell was among the batch of people nominated yesterday to sit in the House of Lords.

Stunell, who stepped down as MP for Hazel Grove at the last election was one of eleven Lib Dem nominations which included its former leader Sir Menzies ‘Ming’ Campbell and other former MP’s.

Sir Andrew held the parliamentary seat of Hazel Grove from 1997, and served as Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Energy between 1997 and 2005 and served as Chief Whip in the Commons between 2001 and 2006. 

 He then served as the party’s local government spokesperson until 2007, when he became chair of the party’s local elections team. He has served on the International Development Select Committee.

In the aftermath of the 2010 General Election Andrew was a member of the Liberal Democrat team that negotiated the Coalition Agreement. He was appointed a minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government when the Coalition was formed, where he was responsible for community cohesion and race equality. He served in that role until 2012.
Before he got involved in politics, Andrew was an architectural assistant.
He joined the party in 1968 because of one specific event, which was the decision by the Labour government to take away the UK passports of Kenyan Asians, first running funsuccessfully for Chester local council and four years later stood for both Chester County Council and the parliamentary seat, which at that stage was held by the Conservatives.

In 1981 he abandoned architecture to work in politics full time, as head of the Association of Liberal Councillors, a body which supported the party’s local politicians. 

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