David Rendel, Liberal MP – obituary

David Rendel in 1999
David Rendel in 1999 Credit: Rex Features

David Rendel, who has died aged 67, was a thoughtful and hard-working former oil industry executive who achieved the Liberal Democrats’ largest ever majority, capturing Newbury from the Conservatives in a 1993 by-election – a disaster for the Tories which led directly to John Major sacking Norman Lamont as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Lamont had been on thin ice since “Black Wednesday” the previous September, when he had been forced to take Britain out of Europe’s Exchange Rate Mechanism, but he sealed his fate when he told a by-election press conference in Newbury that “Je ne regrette rien”. When Rendel won by a staggering 22,055 votes, Major felt he had no alternative but to sack a man who not long before had been one of his closest allies.

Rendel went on to represent Newbury for 12 years. He persistently championed keeping the Lib Dems an independent force, quietly opposing Paddy Ashdown’s efforts to get the party closer to Labour and in 2010 being the only member of the party’s federal executive to vote against going into coalition with the Conservatives. Ironically he would be one of the victims of that decision; nominated for Lib Dem-held Somerton & Frome in 2015, he lost heavily as supporters deserted the party.

Building the Liberal vote in Fulham and later Lib Dem support at Newbury, Rendel imaginatively launched “football card” schemes to attract people not usually interested in politics . He was a man of unfailing courtesy, and at party functions was always the first to offer to wash up. After losing his seat he made clear he was not interested in a peerage, preferring to carry on with local campaigning.

Rendel at a giant duck race organised by Thames Wate to mark the clean up of the River Thames
Rendel at a giant duck race organised by Thames Wate to mark the clean up of the River Thames Credit: Brian Smith

David Digby Rendel was born in Athens on April 15 1949, the son of Alexander Rendel, a foreign correspondent for The Times, and the former Elizabeth Williams. He was a great-great nephew of the Liberal MP Stuart Rendel, a benefactor of Gladstone.

A scholar at Eton, he then spent a year volunteering in Cameroon and Uganda before going up to Magdalen College, Oxford, to read Physics. He undertook postgraduate study at St Cross College, earning his Blue as a member of the record-breaking Boat Race crew of 1974.

That year he joined the finance department of Shell International. He moved on to British Gas in 1977 and Esso Petroleum a year later, as a manager in their computer and finance departments; he stayed at Esso until 1990.

Rendel fought his first seat, Fulham, in 1979 and 1983, more than doubling his vote. In 1986 he moved to Newbury when his wife started work as a GP. The next year he was elected to Newbury council; his opposition to the Conservatives promoting a multi-storey car park on the town’s historic wharf helped the Lib Dems take control of the council in 1991.

He fought Newbury for the first of seven times in 1987, polling 18,608 votes but still 16,656 behind the Conservative Michael McNair-Wilson. In 1992 he increased his vote by 6,000 against a new Tory candidate – Judith Chaplin, who had been one of Major’s key advisers in Downing Street and of whom much was expected.

Within months she died suddenly facing the Conservatives with a by-election. The economy was still in recession, the Tory party was split over the Maastricht treaty and Major’s government was deeply unpopular. Nineteen candidates descended on Newbury, with the Conservative Julian Davidson not one of the party’s strongest.

Into this minefield stepped Lamont. Asked by a reporter whether he most regretted having prematurely detected “green shoots of recovery” or talking of “singing in the bath” after Britain’s ejection from the ERM, the Chancellor with the famous line from Edith Piaf, and history was made.

Rendel suspected something was up when people began running out of their houses to ask him for posters. But the scale of his victory astonished everyone; on the night he polled 37,590 votes and the Labour candidate just 1,171. During the campaign a visiting Peter Mandelson patronisingly addressed him as “Dave” in front of the media; back in the car, Rendel asked his minder: “Who was that?”

At Westminster Rendel became the Lib Dems’ local government spokesman. But he came to national attention supporting the controversial Newbury bypass in the teeth of bitter opposition from environmental campaigners. Living in the centre of Newbury, he could see the damage heavy lorries were causing to the town.

Holding his seat in 1997 with a majority of 8,517 over a new Conservative candidate, Richard Benyon, Rendel became his party’s lead spokesman on social services as New Labour came to power. He led the largest rebellion of Tony Blair’s first parliament, against the withdrawal of benefits from single parents. He also persuaded the National Audit Office to investigate discrepancies in the Serps pension scheme; as a result the Government was forced to restore the pension entitlement of widows who had been disadvantaged, at a cost of £12 billion.

When Ashdown gave up the party leadership in 1999 Rendel threw his hat in the ring, but finished last of five as Charles Kennedy was elected. But he impressed at a hustings in Cornwall when offered a pasty, by making a generous donation which the other candidates then felt they had to match.

Briefly off the front bench, Rendel joined the Public Accounts Committee. After the 2001 election – when Benyon further trimmed his majority – he became Lib Dem higher education spokesman, leading the campaign against university tuition and top-up fees. In 2004 Rendel – a consistent opponent of foxhunting – voted for the Hunting Bill which outlawed hunting with dogs, and local huntsmen demanded his resignation. When the next year Benyon ousted him at the third attempt by 3,460 votes, the Conservatives attributed his defeat to this.

Out of the Commons, he was elected to West Berkshire council in 2007, serving until 2015. He fought Newbury one last time in 2010, Benyon increasing his majority to 12,248.

Rendel attempted a comeback at the 2015 election, contesting Somerton & Frome when David Heath stood down. Heath’s majority had been 1,817, but Rendel went down by 20,268 votes to the Conservative David Warburton – even larger than his own record margin in 1993.

David Rendel married Susan Taylor in 1974. They had three sons.

David Rendel, born April 15 1949, died May 16 2016 

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