David Shutt, Baron Shutt of Greetland

Education

Shutt was educated at Pudsey Grammar School in Yorkshire.

Career

After school Shutt trained as an accountant. In 1975 he became a director of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, of which he later became Chairman. He also became a Trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. In 1973 he was elected to Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council, now Calderdale Council, as a Liberal councillor, and later represented the Liberal Democrats on this council, serving as Mayor of Calderdale in 1982–3.

He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament at seven general elections between 1970 and 1992. He contested Sowerby in 1970, February 1974, October 1974, and 1979. After the abolition of the Sowerby seat, he contested the new Calder Valley constituency in 1983 and 1987. At the 1992 general election he was the Liberal Democrat candidate in Pudsey.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1993 New Year Honours, and on 12 May 2000 was created a life peer as Baron Shutt of Greetland, of Greetland and Stainland in the County of West Yorkshire. He was Liberal Democrat International Development spokesperson in the House of Lords Lords until 2002. Following the 2005 General Election, he was appointed the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords. After the formation of the coalition government headed by David Cameron in May 2010, Shutt was appointed Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard and Government Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords, positions he held until May 2012, when he stepped down as the Liberal Democrats' Lords Chief Whip.

Personal life

In 1965, he married Margaret Pemberton. They have two sons and a daughter.