Sir Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (born 20 July 1950) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gainsborough, previously Gainsborough and Horncastle, since 1983. Parliament's longest-serving male MP since 2024, Leigh is styled Father of the House.
Leigh has been called a "serial rebel" has often voted against his own party. He was one of the original Maastricht Rebels and was reportedly sacked for organising Euro-rebels among ministers. In 2003 Leigh opposed military intervention in Iraq; he has since called for those who voted for the Iraq War, and are still seeking to justify their support for it, to be held to account.
Leigh served as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee from 2001 to 2010, investigating government waste and seeking value for money in public expenditure. Leigh stepped down at the end of the parliamentary session in 2010, it being customary for an Opposition MP to hold this post. Leigh was knighted in the Queen's 2013 Birthday Honours for "public and political service" and has also been honoured by the French and Italian governments.
A prominent Roman Catholic politician and former President of the Catholic Union of Great Britain, Leigh has edited and authored four books: Right Thinking (1988); The Nation That Forgot God (2008); Monastery of the Mind (2012); and Another Country (2025).
Edward Leigh was born on 20 July 1950 in London, the son of a civil servant, Sir Neville Leigh, and his wife Denise née Branch. Sir Neville served in RAF intelligence during World War Two and was Clerk to the Privy Council between 1974 and 1984. The Leigh family hails from the Cheshire landed gentry family of West Hall, High Legh, descendants of the Egertons, earls of Bridgewater.
Leigh is a descendant of the family of the Roman Catholic martyr, blessed Richard Leigh who was hanged at Tyburn during the Reformation in 1588 for being a Catholic priest, and beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.
His maternal grandfather, colonel Cyril Denzil Branch, was a nephew of Nikolai Golitsyn, the last Prime Minister of Imperial Russia.
Leigh was privately educated at the Oratory School and the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, before going up to University College, Durham, where he read history (BA) and was elected President of the Durham University Conservative and Unionist Association and then the Durham Union Society.
After graduating Leigh was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple and practised in arbitration and criminal law at Goldsmith Chambers (a barristers' chambers), then elected a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb). He also served as an Army Reservist Trooper in the Honourable Artillery Company.
Leigh worked in the private office of Margaret Thatcher from 1976 to 1977 as a political secretary when she was Leader of the Opposition. Elected as a Councillor on Richmond Borough Council in 1974, Leigh was then elected to the Greater London Council, representing Richmond, from 1977 to 1981. He lost his GLC seat to the Liberal candidate, Adrian Slade by 115 votes.
Leigh first stood for Parliament at the October 1974 general election, when he unsuccessfully contested Middlesbrough, coming second with 24.4% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour Party MP Arthur Bottomley.
Leigh was elected to Parliament as MP for Gainsborough and Horncastle at the 1983 general election, winning with 50.9% of the vote and a majority of 5,067. He was re-elected as MP for Gainsborough and Horncastle at the 1987 general election with an increased vote share of 53.3% and an increased majority of 9,723.
A strong supporter of Margaret Thatcher, Leigh visited 10 Downing Street with fellow MP Michael Brown on the morning of Thatcher's resignation as Prime Minister in 1990 to try to persuade her to carry on. Although Charles Powell advised them it was a forlorn task, they were nonetheless granted access to the Cabinet which was in process at the time. Leigh and Brown departed 10 Downing Street and walked down Whitehall back to the House of Commons reputedly with "tears in their eyes". After Thatcher resigned, in the ensuing leadership election, Leigh supported Michael Heseltine, under whom he had served at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), preferring to support someone who had stabbed Thatcher in the front to those who had stabbed her in the back.
At the 1992 general election, Leigh was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 54% and an increased majority of 16,245.
Leigh served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State under John Major's premiership but was sacked in May 1993 over his opposition to the Maastricht Treaty. Whilst a Minister he was a keen advocate of privatisation of the Post Office. In the 1995 Conservative leadership election, Leigh supported John Redwood.
Leigh's constituency of Gainsborough and Horncastle was abolished prior to the 1997 general election, and replaced with the new constituency of Gainsborough. At this election Leigh was elected, winning the seat with 43.1% of the vote and a majority of 6,826. He was re-elected as MP for Gainsborough at the 2001 general election with an increased vote share of 46.2% and an increased majority of 8,071.
From 2001 until 2010, Leigh served as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, the principal parliamentary body auditing the Budget, investigating government waste and seeking value for money in public expenditure. During his two terms as chairman, the PAC took evidence on 420 separate government projects and programmes and was responsible for saving the taxpayer over £4 billion.
At the 2005 general election, Leigh was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 43.9% and a decreased majority of 8,003.