Editing Ed Davey (section)

===Lib Dem spokesperson===
[[File:Ed Davey 01.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Davey in 2008|left]]
Following Davey's election to parliament in 1997, he was appointed as the Lib Dem's spokesman on [[HM Treasury|Treasury Affairs]]. He added the post of [[Whip (politics)|whip]] in 1998, and as the spokesman on London from 2000.

Davey was re-elected in the [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001 general election]], increasing his share of the vote from 36.7% to 60.2%. He increased his majority from just 56 to 15,676, beating former Conservative MP [[David Shaw (British politician)|David Shaw]]. He joined the Liberal Democrat frontbench under Leader [[Charles Kennedy]] in the same year when he was appointed the party's spokesperson for [[Chief Secretary to the Treasury|Treasury matters]]. In 2002, he became the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the [[Office of the Deputy Prime Minister]]. He was appointed spokesperson for [[Secretary of State for Education|Education and Skills]] in 2005, before becoming spokesperson for [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Trade and Industry]] in March 2006. In December 2006, he succeeded [[Norman Lamb]] as Chief of Staff to [[Menzies Campbell]], the new party leader.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> Davey was chair of the party's Campaigns and Communications Committee. Following [[Nick Clegg]]'s election as Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Davey was awarded the Foreign Affairs brief, and continued to retain his chairmanship of the party's Campaigns and Communications Committee.<ref name="LibDem-EdwardDavey" />

On 26 February 2008, Davey was [[suspension from the UK parliament|suspended from parliament]] for the day for ignoring a warning from the Deputy Speaker. He was protesting about the exclusion by the Speaker of a Liberal Democrat motion to debate and vote on whether the [[Brexit|UK should have a referendum on staying in the EU]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Lib Dem ordered out of EU debate |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7265516.stm |work=BBC News |date=26 February 2008 |access-date=1 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303005914/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7265516.stm |archive-date=3 March 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

At the 2009 Liberal Democrat conference, Davey caused controversy by calling for dialogue with the [[Taliban]], through declaring that it was "time for tea with the Taliban",<ref>[http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2009/09/ed-davey-tea-with-taleban.html Ed Davey & Tea With the Taleban] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100414181141/http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2009/09/ed-davey-tea-with-taleban.html |date=14 April 2010}} Iain Dale's Diary, 20 September 2009</ref> a comment echoed by [[Malala Yousafzai]] four years later to the BBC.<ref>{{cite news |title=Malala: We must talk to the Taliban to get peace |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-24333273 |access-date=28 March 2014 |work=BBC News |date=7 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220005126/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-24333273 |archive-date=20 February 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>