Sir David Lidington

Former Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy

David Lidington was MP for Aylesbury from 1992 until December 2020. He was an Opposition spokesman on a number of Departments between 1997 and 2010, including DEFRA, Northern Ireland and the Foreign Office. From 2020 until 2016 he was Minister for Europe, responsible for the UK’s relations with nearly 50 European countries. He has represented the UK at meetings of the EU, NATO and the UN Security Council. In Theresa May’s government he served successively as Leader of the House of Commons, Secretary of State for Justice & Lord Chancellor, and Minister for the Cabinet Office. In that last role, he deputised for the Prime Minister in chairing meetings of Cabinet Committees and COBRA and stood at Prime Minister’s Questions when Mrs May was away. He studied History at University and is a two-times winner of University Challenge: first in 1979, when he captained Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, to win the tournament and again in 2002 when the BBC ran a “champion of champions” contest to mark the show’s 40th anniversary.