Colin Breed MP

Colin Breed has been Member of Parliament for South-East Cornwall since 1997 and is a member of the the Liberal Democrats' parliamentary Treasury team.

Biography

Born in London, Colin moved to the West Country in his early teens and attended Torquay Grammar School. He joined Midland Bank on leaving school, and became the Bank's youngest manager when appointed to the area office in Plymouth. He then spent ten years in investment banking, specialising in venture capital and corporate finance. After 17 years with Midland Colin left banking, and owned and managed a small distribution business which has now been sold.

Elected to Caradon District Council and Saltash Town Council in 1982, he was twice Mayor of Saltash. He was elected MP for Cornwall South East at his first attempt in May 1997, three days before his 50th birthday.

His first parliamentary job was as the Liberal Democrats' spokesman on Competition and Consumer Affairs. His report Checking out the Supermarkets instigated an Office for Fair Trading inquiry and an investigation by the Competition Commission of supermarkets' profitability. In October 1999 Charles Kennedy appointed him to the party's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs. In September 2000 Colin published Roots to Recovery on the future of rural Britain. He moved to be junior spokesperson on Defence in 2002, and returned as a spokesman on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs after the 2005 General Election. He is now a member of the Liberal Democrats' Shadow Treasury team.

Colin is a Methodist lay preacher, and a lay member of the General Medical Council. He is an executive member of the Council of Advanced Arab and British Understanding, and is the treasurer of the All Parliamentary Party Cricket Club. He is also Treasurer of the All Parliamentary Party Group on Gibraltar, and Vice-Chair of the All Parliamentary Party Groups on Ethiopia and Palestine and the All Party Parliamentary Methodist Group.

He and his wife Janet have been married since 1968, have a son and a daughter, and are now grandparents.

Visit Colin Breed MP's Website - www.colinbreed.org.uk.