Dinesh Dhamija | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Member of the European Parliament for London | |
In office 2 July 2019 –31 January 2020 | |
Preceded by | Lucy Anderson |
Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | 1950 (age 73–74) Australia |
Nationality | British |
Political party | Liberal Democrats |
Alma mater | Fitzwilliam College,Cambridge |
Dinesh Dhamija (born 1950) is a British Indian business entrepreneur and politician. He is best known as the founder of online travel agency Ebookers. [1] He was Member of the European Parliament for the London region serving for the Liberal Democrats. He was elected to the European Parliament in the 2019 elections and held the role until the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU.
Dhamija was born in Australia,the son of an Indian diplomat. [2] He grew up in India,Mauritius,Afghanistan,Czechoslovakia and the Netherlands. [3] He was educated at Mayo College,King's School,Canterbury and Fitzwilliam College,Cambridge,where he attained an MA in law. [2] [4] [5] [6]
He began his professional career working for IBM,but soon left to begin his own business. [7] In 1980,Dinesh and his wife Tani started selling travel tickets from a kiosk at Earl's Court tube station in London. [7] By 1983,the business venture had developed into Flightbookers,a travel agency with three established premises. The firm grew rapidly and,in 1987,was appointed General Sales Agent for Royal Nepal Airlines in the United Kingdom and Ireland. [8] Over the next decade,the company became known across Europe and established offices in 12 countries. [9]
In 1996 Dhamija was introduced to the relatively new idea of the Internet. Realising the potential,he began to raise funds for the development of an interactive branch of Flightbookers. In 1999 Ebookers became the first interactive online travel agency in the United Kingdom. [9] Within a few years,the firm had established itself as one of Europe's leading travel agencies. In 2005,Dhamija sold Ebookers for £209m. [10] He is now one of the wealthiest Asian residents in the UK,with an estimated worth of £100m as of 2004. [1]
Dhamija was awarded the 2003 Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Management Today magazine. More recently,he was the founder and chairman of the Copper Beech Group,a firm involved in residential property development in Romania and education infrastructure in India. [2]
Dhamija joined the Liberal Democrats in 2014. [5] Then party leader Tim Farron asked him to be a business adviser to the party in 2016,and he is currently the party's Deputy Treasurer. [5] In 2018 he put his name forward for selection as the party's candidate at the 2020 London Mayoral election but lost out to Siobhan Benita. [11]
Dhamija was selected as a candidate for the 2019 European Parliament elections,voted second on the list for London. He took unsuccessful legal action in the High Court against his party to take the top list position,on the basis of being a minority ethnic candidate and Liberal Democrats diversity targets. [12]
On 23 May 2019 he was elected as one of three Liberal Democrat Members of the European Parliament for the London Region.
Dhamija is a member of the think tank,Bridge India [13] and wrote a blog article for the organisation on the Asia Pacific Trade Deal in April 2023. [14]
Lembit Öpik is a former British politician. A former member of the Liberal Democrats,he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 until he lost his seat at the 2010 general election. He was the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2001 to 2007.
Sir John Vincent Cable is a British politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Twickenham from 1997 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. He also served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Business,Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2015.
Sir Norman Peter Lamb is a British politician and solicitor. He was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for North Norfolk from 2001 to 2019,and was the chair of the Science and Technology Select Committee from 2017 to 2019.
Susan Veronica Kramer,Baroness Kramer PC is a British politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond Park from 2005 to 2010. A member of the Liberal Democrats,she was their Treasury Spokesperson from 2015 to 2017 and 2017 to 2019.
Christopher Murray Paul Huhne is a British energy and climate change consultant,and former journalist,business economist and politician who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Eastleigh from 2005 to 2013 and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2010 to 2012. He is currently chair of the UK green gas association –the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association –and senior adviser to the World Biogas Association. He also advises companies on his particular interest in renewable technologies that can provide back up for intermittent energy sources like wind and solar.
Lorely Jane Burt,Baroness Burt of Solihull is a British politician,who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Solihull from 2005 to 2015. She received a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours. She is a patron of Humanists UK.
Nicol Ross Stephen,Baron Stephen is a Scottish politician who served as Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Scottish Liberal Democrats,he was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Aberdeen South from 1999 to 2011,and was leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 2005 to 2008.
Sutton and Cheam is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Paul Scully,a Conservative.
Sarah Virginia Brinton,Baroness Brinton,known as Sal Brinton,is a British politician who served as president of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2020. In November 2010 she was nominated to the House of Lords,taking her place on 10 February 2011 having been created Baroness Brinton,of Kenardington in the County of Kent on 4 February. After Jo Swinson lost her seat at the 2019 United Kingdom general election,Brinton and Sir Ed Davey became acting co-leaders of the Liberal Democrats. After Brinton's term as party president ended,her successor Mark Pack also succeeded her as acting co-leader with Davey. Davey was elected as permanent leader of the party in 2020.
Stephen Roy Williams is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol West from the 2005 general election until his defeat by Labour Party candidate Thangam Debbonaire in 2015. As an MP,he served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Communities and Local Government from 2013 to 2015.
Timothy James Farron is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017. He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005 and is the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs. Before entering politics,he worked in higher education.
William Cowan Rennie is a Scottish politician who served as the Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 2011 to 2021. He has served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Fife since 2016,and previously as a list MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife and as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline and West Fife.
Chuka Harrison Umunna is a British businessman and former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Labour Party,he was part of the Shadow Cabinet from 2011 to 2015. He left Labour in February 2019,when he resigned to form The Independent Group,later Change UK,along with six other MPs. Later in 2019,he left Change UK and,after a short time as an independent MP,joined the Liberal Democrats. In the 2019 general election,he was unsuccessful in being re-elected as an MP and did not return to the House of Commons.
The Liberal Democrats are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom,founded in 1988. They have been the third-largest UK political party by the number of votes cast since the 1992 general election,with the exception of the 2015 general election. They have 15 members of Parliament in the House of Commons,84 members of the House of Lords,four Members of the Scottish Parliament and one member in the Welsh Senedd. The party has over 3000 local council seats,the third largest of the British political parties. The party holds a twice-per-year Liberal Democrat Conference,at which party policy is formulated. In contrast to its main opponents' conference rules,the Lib Dems grant all members attending its Conference the right to speak in debates and vote on party policy,under a one member,one vote system. The party also allows its members to vote online for its policies and in the election of a new leader. The party served as the junior party in a coalition government with the Conservative Party between 2010 and 2015;with Scottish Labour in the Scottish Executive from 1999 to 2007;and with Welsh Labour in the Welsh Government from 2000 to 2003 and from 2016 to 2021.
Catherine Zena Bearder is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament between 2 July 2014 and 12 November 2019. She was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 4 June 2009 to 31 January 2020.
Gordon Birtwistle is a British Liberal Democrat politician and former MP. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Burnley,England,from May 2010 to May 2015. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Danny Alexander,Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2010 to 2012. From 2013,he was Government Apprenticeship Ambassador to Business.
Tessa Jane Muntnée Vasey is a British Liberal Democrat politician. She served as the Member of Parliament for Wells in Somerset from 2010 to 2015 and had previously served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for Business,Innovation and Skills,Vince Cable. She is currently a member of the executive committee of Somerset Council,the unitary authority for the county of Somerset.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019 with 47,074,800 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members of the House of Commons. The Conservative Party won a landslide victory with a majority of 80 seats,a net gain of 48,on 43.6% of the popular vote,the highest percentage for any party since the 1979 general election,though with a narrower popular vote margin than that achieved by Labour over the Conservatives in 1997.
The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election. It was held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019,after all the other EU countries had voted. This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020,and was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.
The 2019 Liberal Democrats leadership election was held following the announcement of the resignation of Vince Cable as leader on 24 May 2019,after just under two years as leader of the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom. The two candidates to succeed Cable were Ed Davey and Jo Swinson.