Richard Newby

Richard Newby (Lord Newby) is a Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords, former director of Flagship Group and a director of Live Consulting. He became a Life Peer in 1997. He is Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Treasury Parliamentary Party Committee.

Early life

Newby was born in Rothwell, West Yorkshire and attended Rothwell Grammar School before studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St Catherine's College Oxford.

Political career

Newby grew up in a Labour stronghold and was a member of the Labour Party at university and in several London boroughs. During the 1975 European referendum, he was General Secretary of Young European Left, the pro-European youth wing of the Labour Party.

He worked for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for its duration and was its chief executive from 1983-88. He worked on all subsequent Lib Dem General Election campaigns, as press officer to Paddy Ashdown (1992), Deputy Campaign Chairman (1997) and subsequently as a member of the Campaigns and Communications Committee. He was Charles Kennedy's Chief of Staff during his period as Leader.

Background

Outside politics Newby was 'a tax man' at HM Customs and Excise from 1974 until 1981. He was also corporate affairs director of a property company (Rosehaugh 1988-92) and a PR/public affairs adviser (1992-2001).

On Tax Havens

In a March 2009 House of Lords debate the Lib Dems challenged the Labour government over the tax contributions of UK tax havens. Lord Newby, endorsed Lord Burnett's call for a purposive rule and added a number of further recommendations for action:

"One would like to see shareholders asking more questions of the companies in which they invest. ... There should be a requirement that all non-doms who choose to remain in the UK for more than a set period should pay UK tax on all their global earnings, thus not just generating more tax income but closing another gigantic loophole. ... [And] We want to push for full information exchange agreements not just with our tax havens, as it were, but with those elsewhere in the world. We hope that that will be one of the outcomes of the G20 discussions."

Affiliations

• Chair of Live Consulting, a corporate responsibility consultancy
• Chair of sport for Life International, which manages education programmes linked to major sports stadiums globally, including in Trinidad, Barbados and Pakistan.
• Chair of Sport at The Prince's Trust and of International Development through Sport (IDS UK)
• Founder Member of the All-Party Parliamentary Corporate Responsibility Group and Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Social Enterprise Group
• CentreForum