Editing David Rendel (section)

== Political career ==
Rendel fought and lost two elections in [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979]] and [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983]] at [[Fulham (UK Parliament constituency)|Fulham]], before moving to Newbury in 1986, when his wife started work as a [[General practitioner|GP]]. 
He became a [[Newbury (borough)|Newbury District]] [[Councillor]] from 1987 to 1995, and fought the Newbury seat unsuccessfully in the [[1992 United Kingdom general election|1992 general election]], gaining 37% of the votes.

He won the [[1993 Newbury by-election]] with a large majority of 22,055, receiving 65% of the votes. He first came to national attention for supporting the [[Newbury bypass]], and in 1999 stood in the [[1999 Liberal Democrats leadership election|election for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats]], but came fifth of five candidates, with [[Charles Kennedy]] being elected.

Rendel held on to his seat in 1997 and 2001 with reduced majorities, but at the 2005 election he was defeated by the Conservative candidate, [[Richard Benyon]].

In May 2006, Rendel was selected by local party members as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Newbury seat for the next election. At the [[2010 United Kingdom general election|general election in May 2010]], he was again defeated by the sitting Conservative, Richard Benyon, whose majority grew to 21%.

Rendel was a directly elected member of the [[Federal Board (Liberal Democrats)|Liberal Democrats’ Federal Executive]] until 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.libdems.org.uk/party_organisations_detail.aspx?title=Federal_Executive&pPK=8dae9f78-9643-4cbd-a41e-1d3e37521826|title=Federal Executive|publisher=Liberal Democrats|accessdate=2010-05-12|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523102231/http://www.libdems.org.uk/party_organisations_detail.aspx?title=Federal_Executive&pPK=8dae9f78-9643-4cbd-a41e-1d3e37521826|archivedate=2010-05-23}}</ref> After the election of 2010, Rendel was the only member on the Federal Executive to vote against the [[Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement|Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement]].<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/11/coalition-government-conservatives-lib-dem|title= David Cameron sacrifices inheritance tax policy to win Liberal Democrat deal|work=[[The Guardian]] |date= 11 May 2010|accessdate= 12 May 2010 | location=London | first=Nicholas | last=Watt}}</ref>

In September 2014, Rendel was selected as Liberal Democrat candidate in the [[2015 United Kingdom general election|2015 general election]] for the seat of [[Somerton and Frome (UK Parliament constituency)|Somerton and Frome]] in [[Somerset]]; however, he lost to the Conservative candidate, [[David Warburton]].