Phil Willis

Liberal Democrat MP Harrogate and Knaresborough

Date of birth

30 November 1941

Political profile

Phil Willis entered the Commons in 1997, when he foiled Norman Lamont's attempt to find a safer seat than his former constituency of Kingston in south west London.

He built successfully upon his seven years as leader of Harrogate district council, in which he helped to develop the town's reinvention as a conference centre.

He was also well known as a long-serving local head teacher, a fact which has formed the bedrock of his political career.

He was appointed the Liberal Democrat's principal spokesman on education in 2000, and has taken every opportunity to define the party's philosophy of opposition to selection and advocacy of the comprehensive system.

He has attacked the government's proposals for specialist and faith schools as creating a two-tier system.

Contact

020 7219 5709

[e-mail]