About

Andrew George is an established national and local campaigner; and a Liberal Democrat MP for the West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly (St Ives) constituency.     

Andrew has headed national and parliamentary campaigns on housing justice, safe staffing and patient care in the NHS, rural affairs, fair trading in grocery supply chains, amongst others.  

He has successfully campaigned, including to end the 50% council tax subsidy for second-home owners, and to secure a regulator to protect small farmers and suppliers from unfair supermarket practices (now the Grocery Code Adjudicator). He has led other campaigns, including for safe registered nurse staffing in NHS settings, to scrapping the “Bedroom Tax”, and for a range of nature commitments and environmental issues. Andrew has previously held front bench positions in his party as ‘Shadow’ Agriculture Minister, Fisheries, Disability, International Development Secretary, and as Private Parliamentary Secretary to the then Party Leader Charles Kennedy. His work also covers international development, environmental protection, health and social care, poverty reduction, anti-poverty, anti-discrimination, housing and much else.   

Outside of Parliament (between 2015-2024), Andrew served as Chief Executive of Cornwall Community Land Trust, where he helped deliver affordable community-led homes for local people, and led research and campaign projects funded by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and other organisations. Since 2006, he has chaired the British Association for the Return of the Parthenon Sculptures.   

Born (1958) and raised in West Cornwall, Andrew is the third of eight children of Hugh and Diana George of Mullion. His father was a small-holding horticulturist; his mother a musician and teacher. Andrew attended state schools in Mullion, Cury, and Helston, and studied at Sussex and Oxford (University College) Universities. Before he was elected to Parliament in May 1997, he worked in farming, research, community development, environmental conservation, affordable housing, and the charity sector. He is married and has an adult daughter and son, as well as two granddaughters.  

He held the seat from 1997 to 2015 and was the first non-Conservative MP elected there in 68 years. He has fought 9 General Elections continually since 1992 in the constituency, winning 5 and was re-elected in July 2024 with a 13,786 majority.