Rt Hon Sir Edward Leigh, MP for Gainsborough
Edward Leigh has been an MP since 1983. Currently: Panel of Chairs.
Roles and committees
Posts held in government or opposition, and committee seats, as Parliament records them.
In government
| Post | When | |
|---|---|---|
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Trade and Industry) (Department of Trade and Industry) | 1990 to 1993 |
Committees
| Post | When | |
|---|---|---|
| Panel of Chairs | 2024 to now | Now |
| Restoration and Renewal Programme Board | 2023 to 2024 | |
| National Security Strategy (Joint Committee) | 2020 to 2022 | |
| Panel of Chairs | 2020 to 2024 | |
| Procedure Committee | 2018 to 2019 | |
| Public Accounts Commission | 2017 to 2022 | |
| Panel of Chairs | 2017 to 2019 | |
| International Trade Committee | 2016 to 2017 |
Show the other 12
| Post | When | |
|---|---|---|
| Public Accounts Commission | 2015 to 2017 | |
| Procedure Committee | 2015 to 2017 | |
| Members' Expenses Committee | 2011 to 2015 | |
| Public Accounts Commission | 2011 to 2015 | |
| Panel of Chairs | 2010 to 2017 | |
| Liaison Committee (Commons) | 2001 to 2010 | |
| Public Accounts Committee | 2001 to 2010 | |
| Public Accounts Committee | 2000 to 2010 | |
| International Development Committee | 1997 to 2001 | |
| Agriculture | 1996 | |
| Social Security | 1995 to 2000 | |
| Defence Committee | 1983 to 1987 |
Other posts
| Post | When | |
|---|---|---|
| Father of the House of Commons | 2024 to now | Now |
Political Interests
Source: UK Parliament Members API · Parliament’s own page
Declared interests
MPs must publish certain paid work, gifts, donations and other interests. This is a record of what they declared, not a suggestion that anything is wrong.
Edward Leigh has 3 interests currently registered.
| Type | What was registered | Registered |
|---|---|---|
| Visits outside the UK | International visit to Italy between 05 October 2025 and 08 October 2025 | 3 Nov 2025 |
| Miscellaneous | Barrister, not currently practising. | 22 May 2015 |
| Family members employed | Mary Leigh employed | – |
Source: Register of Members’ Financial Interests · Parliament’s own page
Questions
MPs can ask ministers questions in writing. The questions show what an MP is working on, which votes cannot.
Edward Leigh asked 10 written questions in the last 12 months.
Who they asked
Latest questions
Source: Written Questions API · Updated 4 Oct 2026
Expenses
MPs claim back money for running an office and working in two places. An independent body, IPSA, publishes every claim. This is what was paid in 2025-26.
33 claims. For comparison, across the 657 MPs in IPSA’s file the middle MP was paid £18,469 and the average was £19,699.
Source: IPSA, individual business costs data · About this data
Election result and area
Edward Leigh represents Gainsborough. Here is who won there at the last general election, and a few numbers about the area.
Conservative
votes ahead of second place
of people who could vote did
Edward Leigh won with 36% of the votes, and Jess McGuire (Labour) came second with 28%.
Votes for each party
Every candidate
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edward Leigh | Conservative | 16,636 | 35.6% |
| Jess McGuire | Labour | 13,104 | 28.1% |
| Pat O'Connor | Reform UK | 9,916 | 21.2% |
| Lesley Rollings | Liberal Democrat | 5,001 | 10.7% |
| Vanessa Smith | Green Party | 1,832 | 3.9% |
| Tim Mellors | Social Democratic Party | 196 | 0.4% |
2024 General Election, on today’s boundaries. Source: House of Commons Library via the Members API.
Your area at a glance
Median gross weekly pay, 2025. Source: ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
Share of people aged 16 to 64, August 2026. Source: ONS and DWP claimant count.
How they vote
In the last 12 months Edward Leigh took part in 184 Commons votes.
More detail on how they vote
Edward Leigh voted the same way as their party in 182 of the 182 votes where parties gave instructions (100%), and went the other way in 0.
What does this mean?
Parties tell their MPs how to vote. Most MPs usually follow that. A high or low count says nothing on its own about whether an MP is good or bad, and we do not rank MPs by it. We only count votes where parties gave instructions, not free votes. How we count it
Recent votes
| Date | Vote | They voted | Compared with party |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Sep | End of life for terminally ill adults: the first main vote | Against | Free vote |
| 11 Sep | A vote to end a debate | Against | Free vote |
| 10 Sep | Social housing: an attempt to block it | For | Same as party |
| 7 Sep | Health: a proposed change | For | Same as party |
| 2 Sep | Voting and elections: the final vote | Against | Same as party |
| 2 Sep | Voting and elections: a proposed change | Against | Same as party |
See every vote on Parliament’s site
Has this changed over time?
View data table
| Month | This MP | Party average |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 25 | 100% | 100% |
| Nov 25 | 100% | 100% |
| Dec 25 | 100% | 100% |
| Jan 26 | 100% | 100% |
| Feb 26 | 100% | 100% |
| Mar 26 | 100% | 100% |
| Apr 26 | 100% | 100% |
| May 26 | 100% | 100% |
| Jun 26 | 100% | 100% |
| Jul 26 | 100% | 100% |
| Sep 26 | 100% | 100% |
Source: Commons Votes API
This page states what the record shows. It does not say why an MP voted as they did. How we calculate this