Who is Ed Davey? The Lib Dem leader whose life has been marked by adversity
The youngest of three boys, Sir Ed Davey had a childhood marked by adversity. His mother died when he was a teenager and his father died when he was just four.
As an adult, Davey now cares for his son, who is disabled with a neurological condition.
So what do we know about the man who leads the third party in British politics?
His early life
Ed Davey was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, on Christmas Day in 1965. He was the youngest of three boys, but lost his father at just four years old and then his mother when he was in his mid-teens. She had spent three years battling cancer, during which time he nursed his mother together with his grandmother and brother Henry.
Once a keen Scout and Air Scout, he later remembers feeling “isolated” at school because of his caring responsibilities, which meant he couldn’t take part in after-school activities or sports. “The last 18 months she was bedridden and in a lot of pain. I’d spend hours on the bed, talking to her,” he said. Davey was with his mother when she died at Nottingham General Hospital, after being placed on an unsuited dementia ward.
After both his parents had died, Davey was brought up by his maternal grandparents in the village of Eakring, though his grandfather died soon after. He spent much of his childhood and young adulthood close to his grandmother. “First of all, she was looking after me. Then we were looking after each other,” he said.
His family
Davey married Emily Gasson, a former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate who unsuccessfully stood in four elections and is now a councillor, in 2005 and the pair have two children, a son and daughter.
Their son, John, born in 2007 and now a teenager, is disabled with a neurological condition. He has attended special schools but is now educated at home with a tutor – a change that Davey said led to him becoming verbal for the first time. He has spoken about his anxiety about who will care for his son when he and his wife are no longer around. “It’s the thing that worries me more than anything else in my life,” Davey said.
Gasson was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in 2012. She was well for many years following her diagnosis, but declined during lockdown and is working on recovering her physical strength.
His parents
His father, John, was a solicitor and his mother, Nina, a teacher. Davey has described how he was inspired to study by his mother, who always wanted him to try hard academically and who he wanted to impress.
His education
Davey attended the private Nottingham High School, the alma mater of former chancellor Kenneth Clarke. He became head boy, with Labour MP Ed Balls – who was studying in the year below – watching on.
After school, he achieved a first class degree in philosophy, politics and economics at Jesus College, Oxford where he was junior common room president. After becoming an economics researcher for the Liberal Democrats he returned to study, reading for a master’s degree in economics at Birkbeck College, London.
Why is he a Sir?
For three years, the Lib Dem leader was a member of the cabinet in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, holding the post of secretary of state for energy and climate change from 2012 to 2015. He was knighted in the 2016 New Year’s Honours for “political and public services”.
