Editing David Laws (section)

{{Short description|British politician (born 1965)}}
{{for-multi|the rugby league player|David Laws (rugby league)|other people|David Law (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = David Laws
| image               = David Laws Minister.jpg
| office              = [[Minister for the Cabinet Office#Ministers of State at the Cabinet Office|Minister Assisting the Deputy Prime Minister]]{{efn|As Minister of State at the Cabinet Office}}
| primeminister       = [[David Cameron]]
| term_start          = 4 September 2012
| term_end            = 8 May 2015
| predecessor         = [[David Miliband]] (2005)
| successor           = [[Nicholas True, Baron True|The Lord True]] (2020)
| office1             = [[Department for Education|Minister of State for Schools]]
| primeminister1      = [[David Cameron]]
| term_start1         = 4 September 2012
| term_end1           = 8 May 2015
| predecessor1        = [[Nick Gibb]]
| successor1          = Nick Gibb
| office2             = [[Chief Secretary to the Treasury]]
| primeminister2      = [[David Cameron]]
| term_start2         = 12 May 2010
| term_end2           = 29 May 2010
| predecessor2        = [[Liam Byrne]]
| successor2          = [[Danny Alexander]]
| office3             = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[Yeovil (UK Parliament constituency)|Yeovil]]
| term_start3         = 7 June 2001
| term_end3           = 30 March 2015
| predecessor3        = [[Paddy Ashdown]]
| successor3          = [[Marcus Fysh]]
| birth_name          = David Anthony Laws
| birth_date          = {{nowrap|{{birth date and age|1965|11|30|df=y}}}}
| birth_place         = [[Farnham]], England
| death_date          = 
| death_place         = 
| party               = [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]
| partner             = James Lundie {{small|(2001–present)}}
| alma_mater          = [[King's College, Cambridge]]
| caption             = Laws in 2014
}}
'''David Anthony Laws''' (born 30 November 1965) is a British politician who served as the [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Yeovil (UK Parliament constituency)|Yeovil]] from [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001]] to [[2015 United Kingdom general election|2015]]. A member of the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]], in his third parliament he served at the outset as a Cabinet Minister, in 2010, as [[Chief Secretary to the Treasury]]; as well as later concurrently as [[Minister of State for Schools]] and [[Minister for the Cabinet Office#Ministers of State at the Cabinet Office|Minister Assisting the Deputy Prime Minister]] – an office where he worked cross-departmentally on implementing the coalition agreement in policies - from 2012 to 2015.

After a career in [[investment banking]], Laws became an economic adviser and later Director of Policy and Research for his party. In 2001, he was elected as MP for Yeovil, succeeding former Liberal Democrat leader [[Paddy Ashdown]]. In 2004, he co-edited ''[[The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism]]'', followed by ''Britain After Blair'' in 2006. After the [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010 general election]], Laws was a senior party negotiator in [[Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement|the coalition agreement]] which underpinned the party's parliamentary five-year coalition government with the [[Conservative party (UK)|Conservative Party]].

He held the office of Chief Secretary to the Treasury for 17 days before resigning owing to the disclosure of his parliamentary expenses claims, described by the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee as "a series of serious breaches of the rules, over a considerable period of time", albeit unintended; the [[Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards]] found "no evidence that [he] made his claims with the intention of benefiting himself or his partner in conscious breach of the rules."<ref name="parliament1"/> His was among the six cabinet resignations during the [[United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal|expenses scandal]]; he was suspended from Parliament for seven days by vote of the House of Commons. In the [[2012 British cabinet reshuffle|2012 cabinet reshuffle]], he attended cabinet as [[Minister of State for School Standards]] and [[Minister for the Cabinet Office|Minister Assisting the Deputy Prime Minister]]. He was unseated by Conservative nominee [[Marcus Fysh]] in the 2015 general election.