biography
| name: |
Steel (of Aikwood), David (Martin Scott), Lord
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| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1938– )
|
| biography:
| British politician, born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, E Scotland, UK. He studied in Kenya and at Edinburgh, and became an MP in 1965. He sponsored a controversial bill to reform the laws on abortion (1966–7), and was active in the anti-apartheid movement. He became Liberal chief whip (1970–5) before succeeding Jeremy Thorpe as Liberal leader (1976–88). In 1981 he led the party into an alliance with the Social Democratic Party, the two parties successfully merging in 1987–8. He was knighted in 1990, and created a life peer in 1997. In 1999 he was elected as a founding member of the Scottish Parliament, and its first presiding officer. |
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