John Leech

http://www.libdems.org.uk/john_leech

John Leech MP
MP for Manchester Withington

John Leech entered Parliament at the first attempt in 2005 when he was elected to represent Manchester Withington constituency, defeating the previous Labour incumbent with a swing of over 17%.

Prior to becoming an MP, John worked for both McDonalds as a trainee manager and the RAC and served for ten years as a member of Manchester City Council where he was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat group and group spokesperson on Planning and the Environment

A keen sportsman, John is a member of the parliamentary football team and has been a Manchester City season ticket holder for over 30 years. He is also an amateur dramatics enthusiast.

Record Of Delivery
John has a strong record of delivering for local people.

He played an important role in securing a return of the £6.5m that The Christie hospital lost in the Icelandic banking collapse and has campaigned extensively to protect local services, such as Burnage library and Withington baths. John was successful in getting the prostate cancer drug Abiraterone approved for use on the NHS and fought long and hard to bring the Metrolink to south Manchester.

A vocal campaigner for apprenticeships, John has campaigned continuously for local businesses to take on apprentices and 1970 new apprenticeships have been created in Manchester Withington so far since 2010.

John took a leading role in the campaign to pardon Alan Turing, which met with success with the Queen granting a pardon in December 2013.

John is a passionate campaigner for improved road safety and has led calls for the default speed limit on local roads to be reduced from 30mph to 20mph. For his work in this field he was named ‘Parliamentarian of the Year for Road Safety’ by road safety charity Brake in 2008. John was also awarded Lib Dem “MP of the Year” 2013 by Patchwork Foundation for his work in Parliament and the constituency with disadvantaged and minority groups.

Parliamentary Experience
After entering Parliament in 2005, John became a member of the Transport Select Committee. In 2006 he became the Liberal Democrat Transport spokesperson and remained in the post until 2010.

John was appointed the Liberal Democrat Culture, Media and Sport Spokesperson in 2012. He is also currently a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, having joined in 2013 after leaving the Transport Select Committee.