Cllr Lord Shutt of Greetland Peer

Address:
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW

BIOGRAPHY

David Trevor Shutt was born on the 16^th March 1942, and educated at Pudsey Grammar School.  From school, he went on to become an Articled Clerk at Smithson, Blackburn & Co. in Leeds.  There, he became an Audit Clerk from 1964 to 1966, and in between, in 1965, he married Margaret Pemberton.  They have two sons and a daughter.

In 1967, David moved on to Bousfield, Waite & Co., in Halifax, where he became a Taxation Assistant.  He passed his Accountancy examinations in 1969 and became an FCA.  In 1970, he was made a Partner in Bousfield, Waite & Co., a post he held until 1994, when he became a Consultant there.  He remained a Consultant with that firm until 2001.

The General Election of 1970 was when David contested the Sowerby seat for the Liberal Party.  He became first a Liberal, and then a Liberal Democrat Councillor in Calderdale MBC, first in 1973 (actually until 1990, the first time, with a spell as Mayor for a year in 1982/3).  During this time, in 1983, he was awarded the Citoyen d’Honneur, Commune de Riorges, in France.  In the February and October General Elections of 1974, David stood again as a candidate for the Liberals in the Sowerby seat.

David became a Director of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd. in 1975, and then again contested the Sowerby seat for the Liberals in 1979.   For the Liberal Alliance, he contested the Calder Valley seat in both 1983 and 1987.  In 1985, he was made a Trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.  He became Vice Chairman of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust in 1987.  For the General Election of 1992, David was selected to stand as a Liberal Democrat candidate in Pudsey, and in 1993, he was awarded the OBE.  The Institute for Citizenship chose David as their Treasurer in 1995, and he held that position up to 2002.  In 1995, David was also returned again as a Councillor in Calderdale MBC, and remained there until 2003.

In 1999, David became a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Club, and the year 2000 was quite eventful for him – he was made a Freeman of Calderdale, and became a Life Peer – Baron Shutt of Greetland and Stainland in the County of West Yorkshire.

David is Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords.  He was also spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats in the Lords on International Development until 2002.

David lists his recreations as travel, transport, and singing with the Parliament Choir, where he serves as Treasurer!