British politician
Dame Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (; née Salmon; born 13 May 1963) is a British politician who served in various ministerial positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak between 2014 and 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, she was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Northamptonshire from 2010 to 2024. Leadsom served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2017, Leader of the House of Commons from 2017 to 2019 and Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2019 to 2020. She has twice run to become Leader of the Conservative Party, in 2016 and 2019. 
Leadsom was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1963. After graduating with a degree in political science at the University of Warwick, she began a career in finance including working as Institutional Banking Director at Barclays, and later as Senior Investment Officer and Head of Corporate Governance at Invesco Perpetual. She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2010 general election. She served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister from 2014 to 2015 and Minister of State for Energy from 2015 to 2016. Leadsom was a prominent member of the Leave campaign during the 2016 referendum on EU membership, and gained standing in TV debates. 
Upon David Cameron's resignation, Leadsom became one of five candidates in the 2016 Conservative Party leadership election. In the second round of voting by MPs, she came second to Theresa May. May appointed Leadsom as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in which position she served from 2016 to 2017. Following the snap 2017 general election, Leadsom was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council. On 22 May 2019, she resigned in protest at May's Brexit strategy. Two days later, May announced her resignation as party leader, taking effect on 7 June. Leadsom stood as a candidate to succeed May as leader of the Conservative Party in June 2019 but was eliminated in the first round of voting, finishing 8th out of 10 candidates with 11 votes. 
Upon the appointment of Boris Johnson as prime minister, Leadsom was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. She left the Cabinet in the 2020 cabinet reshuffle and remained in the House of Commons as a backbencher, until 2023 when she returned to the frontbench as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health, Start for Life and Primary Care under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Leadsom announced that she would stand down from parliament at the 2024 general election.
Early life and financial career.
Andrea Salmon was born on 13 May 1963 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, the daughter of Richard and Judy Salmon ("née" Kitchin). She attended Tonbridge Girls' Grammar School, before studying Political Science at the University of Warwick. When she was young Leadsom stacked shelves in Sainsbury's and also worked as a waitress.
After graduation, Leadsom began a career in the financial sector as a debt trader for Barclays de Zoete Wedd, the-then investment bank division of Barclays Bank.
Leadsom served as Barclays' Deputy Director in the Financial Institutions team from 1993. In this role, she said she was given a "ringside seat" in the collapse of Barings Bank. She clashed with the head of Barclays Investments who tried to persuade her to return to full-time work soon after a pregnancy, and she left the company in 1997.
From 1997 to 1999, Leadsom served as managing director of De Putron Fund Management (DPFM). In 1998 she was promoted to board director for marketing.
Leadsom was Head of Corporate Governance and a Senior Investment Officer at Invesco Perpetual from 1999 to 2009. Her role was to work on "special projects", mostly for the Chief Investment Officer, which included negotiating pay terms for senior fund managers. Towards the end of her time, she advised on a number of governance issues, but she had no-one reporting to her in either role.
Leadsom was a Conservative Party councillor on South Oxfordshire District Council between 2003 and 2007.
At the 2005 general election, Leadsom stood in Knowsley South, coming third with 12.3% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Eddie O'Hara and the Liberal Democrat candidate. She was subsequently placed on the Conservative A-List.
Political career.
Early parliamentary career (2010–2013).
Leadsom was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate in South Northamptonshire in June 2006. At the 2010 general election, Leadsom was elected as MP for South Northamptonshire with 55.2% of the vote and a majority of 20,478. On entering the House of Commons she was elected as a member of the Treasury Select Committee. She made her maiden speech on 22 June 2010, when she spoke of restoring health to the financial sector, drawing from personal experience in financial regulation, particularly with Barings Bank.
In September 2011, she co-founded the Fresh Start Project with fellow Conservative MPs Chris Heaton-Harris and George Eustice to "research and build support for realistic and far-reaching proposals for reforming the EU". On 25 October 2011, Leadsom was one of 81 Conservative MPs to defy the party whip and vote in favour of holding a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union. This led to a sharp ruction with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, at the time, which she denies. In May 2012 she advocated for the removal of minimum wage, maternity leave, unfair dismissal legislation and pensions from British workers.
In July 2012, during the Libor scandal, she was widely reported on for her contribution to the Treasury Select Committee's questioning of Bob Diamond. At a subsequent hearing she questioned Paul Tucker, who stated that the previous government had not conspired with the Bank of England to fix rates. In a BBC interview, Leadsom stated that the suggestion "has now been completely squashed by Paul Tucker", and that on that specific point, George Osborne might want to apologise to Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls for "suggesting he was implicated in rate fixing". She also pointed out that Balls "still [had] a huge amount to answer for in relation to the scandal and his time in office". Mike Smithson suggested this could be a reason for Osborne to overlook her for a promotion in the 2012 cabinet reshuffle, despite the fact that "in terms of talent she must be right at the top of the list of 2010 newbies who should be promoted".
Leadsom was one of five MPs to abstain from the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill by voting in both lobbies. Leadsom had earlier said she found the wording of the legislation "unacceptable", and that voting no reflected the views of "so many" of her constituents, who felt that the bill was "deeply wrong", but ultimately chose to abstain, saying, "I find myself genuinely torn...I cannot vote against a measure that would mean so much to the minority of homosexual couples for whom marriage is the ultimate recognition for their genuine feelings for each other. Yet nor can I vote for a measure that risks centuries of faith-based belief in marriage". During her Conservative Party leadership campaign in 2016, she stated she would have preferred a situation in which there were two types of services. Following the vote, Leadsom stated, "I would like to make clear that I fully support the lifelong commitment that is made between any loving couple and that I believe the legal basis of a same sex marriage should be no different to that of a heterosexual couple".
In April 2013 at the Hansard Society's annual parliamentary affairs lecture, Leadsom warned against the UK leaving the European Union, stating that "I think it would be a disaster for our economy and it would lead to a decade of economic and political uncertainty at a time when the tectonic plates of global success are moving."
In October 2013, Leadsom was appointed by David Cameron to the Number 10 Policy Unit, with responsibility for part of the public services brief.
Economic Secretary to the Treasury (2014–2015).
On 9 April 2014 Leadsom was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury following Maria Miller's resignation. She was also given the additional responsibility of City Minister, a post which had previously been held concurrently with the position of Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
Leadsom was instrumental in introducing the UK Government's first Islamic bonds, the Sukuk. This was the first Islamic bond listed outside the Islamic world. Leadsom stated "the strong demand for the Sukuk not only delivers good value for money for the taxpayer, but also cements Britain's position as the western hub of Islamic finance and is a part of our long term economic plan to make Britain the undisputed centre of the global financial system."
According to a 2016 report in the "Financial Times", her period as City Minister was described by an anonymous Treasury official as "a disaster". Another anonymous official said: "She found it difficult to understand issues or take decisions. She was monomaniacal, seeing the EU as the source of every problem. She alienated officials by continually complaining about poor drafting."
Donations from family firm.
In July 2014, "The Independent" revealed that Leadsom had received a series of donations totalling £70,000 to pay for printing and research costs for the company FSP over the course of three years. The company is owned by her brother in law, whose family is based in the British Virgin Islands. Leadsom's husband Ben was a director of the firm which made the donations, which were used to pay the salaries of staff in Leadsom's Westminster office after her election as MP; the firm has also made donations of £816,000 to the Conservative party.
The firm making the donations, Gloucester Research, was based in London and therefore the donations conformed to the rule banning political donations from abroad. The Labour MP Tom Watson said: "These very large donations might be within the rules, but it certainly isn't right that a Treasury minister has been taking money in this way. Most reasonable people will see this as completely unreasonable."
Minister of State for Energy (2015–2016).
At the 2015 general election, Leadsom was re-elected as MP for South Northamptonshire with an increased vote share of 60.1% and an increased majority of 26,416. After the general election, Leadsom, was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, reporting to Amber Rudd who was promoted to Secretary of State at the same department.
In June 2015 Leadsom announced the end of taxpayer funded subsidies for onshore wind farms, stating "we now have enough onshore wind in the pipeline to be sufficient to meet our renewable electricity aims". This was a year earlier than was originally planned and was in line with the Conservative Party Manifesto.
Before becoming Minister at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Leadsom had opposed wind farms and EU renewable energy targets. After her appointment she said "When I first came to this job one of my two questions was: 'Is climate change real?' and the other was 'Is hydraulic fracturing ["fracking"] safe?' And on both of those questions I am now completely persuaded."
As Minister, Leadsom launched the consultation to ban microbeads, being personally opposed to them, stating "Most people would be dismayed to know the face scrub or toothpaste they use was causing irreversible damage to the environment, with billions of indigestible plastic pieces poisoning sea creatures. Adding plastic to products like face washes and body scrubs is wholly unnecessary when harmless alternatives can be used."
European Union membership referendum (2016).
Leadsom took a prominent role in the campaign to leave the EU in June 2016. She argued that the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, had destabilised financial markets and jeopardised the Bank's independence by warning of short-term negative effects on the economy caused by leaving the EU.
In a televised debate on the referendum, Leadsom appeared on the "Leave" panel, along with Gisela Stuart and Boris Johnson. She disputed claims that the UK should pursue single market membership, saying that 80% of the world's economy, and most EU free-trade deals, are not within the single market. She also said that the UK economy is too large to need the single market, but is hindered by the slowness of EU trade procedures.
Conservative Party leadership candidate (2016).
Immediately following the result of the Brexit referendum, David Cameron announced that he would resign as leader of