The Lord Alton of Liverpool | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2023 | |
| Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights | |
| Assumed office 4 December 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Joanna Cherry |
| Liberal Chief Whip | |
| In office 1985 – 11 June 1987 | |
| Leader | David Steel |
| Preceded by | Alan Beith |
| Succeeded by | Jim Wallace |
Assumed office
| |
| In office 29 March 1979 – 8 April 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Sir Arthur Irvine |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | David Patrick Paul Alton (1951-03-15)15 March 1951 (age 74) London, England |
| Nationality | Ireland,United Kingdom[1] |
| Political party | None (Crossbench) |
| Other political affiliations |
|
| Spouse | Elizabeth Bell |
| Children | 4 |
| Residence(s) | Lancashire, England |
| Alma mater | Liverpool Hope University |
David Patrick Paul Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool,KCSG,KCMCO (born 15 March 1951) is a British-Irish politician, formerly a Member of Parliament for theLiberal Party and laterLiberal Democrat who has sat as acrossbench member of theHouse of Lords since 1997 when he was made alife peer. Alton is also known for his human rights work including the co-founding of Jubilee Action, the children's charity (which changed its name to Chance for Childhood in 2014), and serves as chair, patron or trustee of several charities and voluntary organisations.[2]
In December 2024 Alton was elected Chair of the UK ParliamentJoint Committee on Human Rights.
Alton is a visiting professor ofLiverpool Hope University,[3] an Ambassador Fellow ofLiverpool John Moores University,[4] and a former President of theCatholic Union of Great Britain.[5]
Born in London on 15 March 1951,[6][7] His father was aDesert Rat who had served in theEighth Army, and then worked for the Ford Motor Company. His mother was a native Irish speaker from the West of Ireland.[1] After being rehoused from the East End, Alton was brought up in a council flat on an overspill council estate. He passed a scholarship exam to join the first intake of a new Jesuit grammar school and was educated atThe Campion School andChrist's College of Education, Liverpool.[6][8] He began his career as a teacher and, in 1972, was elected as a Liberal toLiverpool City Council as Britain's youngest city councillor. Alton was elected for the Low Hill ward, serving from 1972 to 1974, then, after the Local Government Act 1974, he was elected for the Smithdown ward where he served for the next six years. Alton was also a member ofMerseyside County Council for the Smithdown division from 1974 to 1977 and chairman of the housing committee. He was deputy leader of Liverpool City Council from 1978 to 1980.[8]
Alton was elected as Member of Parliament forLiverpool Edge Hill at aby-election in 1979 for theLiberal Party, when he became the "Baby of the House", achieving a record swing of 36.8% and 64% of the vote. He won the seat the day after the Callaghan Government was defeated in a vote of confidence and the 1979 General Election being called. He became the shortest lived MP, a member for less than a week, and made his Maiden Speech within three hours of taking his seat. Five weeks later he was re-elected and went on to serve as a Liverpool MP for 18 years, before standing down. He was the only new member of a Parliamentary Party of 11 MPs. He campaigned on the slogan "Everyone Knows Someone Who Has Been Helped by David Alton."[8] He was notably a very short-serving Baby of the House, asStephen Dorrell, who was a year younger than Alton, was elected at the 1979 election.
When the Edge Hill constituency was abolished for the1983 general election, he was elected to represent the newLiverpool Mossley Hill constituency.
Alton held a number of spokesman posts for the Liberals: environment and race relations, 1979-1981; Home Affairs, 1981-1982; Northern Ireland, 1987-1988.[9] He also served asChief Whip from 1985 to 1987.[9] He is known for hisanti-abortion position, and in 1987 he resigned as Chief Whip to campaign for his unsuccessfulprivate member's bill which aimed to stoplate abortions. He became aLiberal Democrat MP when the Liberal Party merged with theSDP in 1988, but he had difficult relations with parts of the party, especially over attempts to make the party adopt a positionin favour of abortion rights. In 1992, he announced that he would not stand again as a Liberal Democrat after the party passed a policy that he believed committed the party to support abortion for the first time. A motion passed in Spring 1993 stating that the party had no position on the substantive issue of abortion spared him delivering on the promise.
He stood down as an MP at the1997 general election. His constituency seat was also abolished at that election.
Inn April 1997, it was announced that he was to be made alife peer, as part ofJohn Major's1997 Dissolution Honours.[9] He was created asBaron Alton of Liverpool,ofMossley Hill in the County of Merseyside on 12 June 1997.[10] He took his seat in theHouse of Lords as acrossbencher on 12 June 1997.[11]
Alton is chairman of the British-DPRK All-Party Parliamentary Group, and visited Pyongyang in October 2010[12] when he had talks with leaders of theNorth Korean government includingChoe Thae-bok, the chairman of theSupreme People's Assembly.[13]
On 26 March 2021, it was announced that Alton was one of two members of the House of Lords to be sanctioned byChina for spreading what it called "lies and disinformation" about the country. He was subsequently banned from entering China,Hong Kong andMacau, and Chinese citizens and institutions are prohibited from doing business with him.[14] The sanctions were condemned by the Prime Minister and led the Foreign Secretary to summon the Chinese ambassador.[15][16]
On the 12 December 2022, Alton was sanctioned by Iran, along with theChief of the Defence Staff, a Government Minister, Members of Parliament, as well as other individuals and institutions from the UK. It is understood that this was done because of Alton's criticism of Iran's Human Rights record.[17]
Alton was formally denounced by the North Korean regime and told he would be listed as an enemy of their State because of his collaboration with the UN Commission of Inquiry into North Korea which found evidence of crimes against humanity and for providing support to escapees.
Alton was included amongst 21 UK Parliamentarians in the Russian Foreign Ministry's personal sanction list issued on 23rd April 2025.[18]
Alton served on:
In 1997, Alton was appointed Professor of Citizenship atLiverpool John Moores University, establishing the Foundation for Citizenship and the Roscoe Lectures.[21] The lecture series explores citizenship and lectures have been given by commentators including the14th Dalai Lama andPrince Charles.[22]
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Alton established the lobby group for human rights,Jubilee Campaign, in 1987, with the support of other members of parliament. He also co-founded Jubilee Action, a children's charity established to fulfil the humanitarian needs highlighted by the work of Jubilee Campaign. In 2014 Jubilee Action changed its name to Chance for Childhood.[23]
Alton campaigned against theHuman Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, opposing the creation and use of animal-human hybrid stem cells for medical purposes.[24]
He is a patron of the International Young Leaders Network[25] and Save the Congo!, a small international rights group founded by the Congolese rights activist Vava Tampa to end the political crisis that continues to give rise to wars, conflicts and violence that have killed over 5.4 million people in Congo.[26]
Alton has supported the rights and freedoms of those inHong Kong, during the2019–20 Hong Kong protests and regarding theNational Security Law imposed byBeijing in June 2020, and its associated clampdowns. In reaction to pro-Beijing lawmakerJunius Ho's actions regarding women and the LGBT+ community, as well as Ho's alleged support of theYuen Long attackers, Alton worked withLuke de Pulford to pressureAnglia Ruskin University into rescinding the honorary doctoral degree it had conferred on Ho.[27] The degree was withdrawn on 29 October 2019.[28][29]
During the2019 Hong Kong Polytechnic University conflict, he issued a statement calling for the end to police violence and criticising Chief ExecutiveCarrie Lam.[30]
In January 2021, Alton influenced the Lords to pass an amendment to theTrade Act 2021 that "would require that the UK does not trade with genocidal regimes. Importantly, with theUnited Nations having shown itself incapable of making such decisions, the determination of whether genocide has taken place would be made by theHigh Court of England and Wales."[31]
Alton is married to Elizabeth Bell, they have four children and five grandchildren. Alton holds both British and Irish citizenship, as do his children.[1] He resides inLancashire and is aRoman Catholic.[8][32][33][34]
Alton has been appointed a Knight Commander of Merit of theSacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George in 2003. He was appointed a Knight Commander of theOrder of St. Gregory the Great byPope Benedict XVI in 2008.[35]
Alton received the 2023 Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty. At the presentation the Dean said "He has dedicated his life to fighting oppression and made this noble cause the cornerstone for his work as a politician and public intellectual.”[36]
Alton was granted arms in 1997.[citation needed]
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Lord Alton has published numerous non-fiction titles:
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLiverpool Edge Hill 1979–1983 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forLiverpool Mossley Hill 1983–1997 | Constituency abolished |
| Preceded by | Baby of the House 1979 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Liberal Chief Whip 1985–1987 | Succeeded by |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Alton of Liverpool | Followed by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
