Clegg, Nicholas William Peter (1967– )

UK centrist politician, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party from 2007. After Menzies Campbell resigned as party leader in October 2007, he announced his candidacy and defeated his main challenger, Chris Huhne, to be elected leader in December 2007. Although he had only been a member of Parliament (MP) since 2005, he had been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) 1999–2004 and worked in the European Commission in the 1990s. He is a ‘market liberal’, who supports a free-market economic policy combined with devolution of power and defence of civil liberties.

Born in Chalfont St Giles, England, he studied archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge University and did a masters degrees at the University of Minnesota and the College of Europe, in Bruges. He worked with the European Commission 1994–99, initially on its aid programme to the former USSR and later as a policy adviser and speechwriter for Leon Brittain, the Commission's vice-president and trade commissioner. He was elected as a Liberal Democrat MEP in 1999, representing the East Midands, and became an MP for the Sheffield Hallam constituency in 2005.