On This Day

02 December 1958

Happy birthday to Andrew George, MP for St Ives

Born in Mullion, Cornwall, Andrew George was educated at Helston Grammar School, the University of Sussex and University College Oxford. George worked as a charity worker becoming deputy director of the Cornwall Rural Community Council in 1987. Before joining the Liberal Democrats, he was a member of Mebyon Kernow and was a founder member of the Cornish Constitutional Convention campaigning for a Cornish assembly, while in 2005 he became the first MP to swear the oath of allegiance in Cornish. In 1992 he contested St. Ives, cutting the Tory majority to less than 2000 and winning the seat at the 1997 election. From 1999 to 2006 he held a number of posts on the Liberal Democrat front bench including Shadow Rural Affairs and Food Secretary and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development. During the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition, George became a noted critic of the government sponsoring a private member’s bill in 2014 to mitigate the effects of the bedroom tax. Out of parliament from 2015, George secured election to Cornwall Council, serving from 2021 to 25. Since his return to the House of Commons in 2024, Andrew George has served on the Health and Social Care Select Committee.