Introduction
Andrew Nicholas Duff, OBE (born 25 December 1950) is a Liberal Democrat politician, a former president of the Union of European Federalists, and a former Member of the European Parliament for the East of England region of the UK.
Early life
He was educated at Sherborne School and St John's College, Cambridge.
Political career
He initially stood in the 1984 European Parliament election, finishing third with 22.5% of the vote. In the 1989 election he polled 8% of the vote, coming fourth, then in the 1994 election he came third with 20%. The constituencies were largely representing Cambridgeshire and at times parts of Bedfordshire.
With the electoral change to regional party-list proportional representation, he was first elected in the 1999 European Parliament election when the Liberal Democrats won 12% of the regional vote, and retained his seat in the 2004 and 2009 elections when they won 14% of the regional vote. He lost his seat in 2014 when his party took less than 7% in the region.
Between October 2008 and November 2013 Andrew Duff was president of the Union of European Federalists (UEF). On 15 September 2010 Duff together with UEF initiated the Spinelli Group, which was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the European Union (EU). Other prominent supporters are: Jacques Delors, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt, Elmar Brok.
He was a City Councillor in Cambridge from 1982 to 1990 and was Vice-President of the Liberal Democrats from 1994 to 1997. At the 1992 general election he stood against the then-Prime Minister, John Major, in the Huntingdon constituency, coming in third place with 12% of the vote. In October 2007 he joined the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Honours
He was awarded an OBE for services to politics in 1997.