A mother of three children and married to Ben, Andrea has enjoyed a 23-year career in finance.
Andrea was educated at Tonbridge Grammar School for girls, and at Warwick University where she read Political Science. Her interest in politics goes back to her early teens, where family dinners were often spent debating subjects like nuclear disarmament, the oil crisis, and the super tax on the self-employed.
Andrea's great passion is for giving children the best start in life. In her twenties, she and Ben were volunteers for Raleigh International, arranging 'adventure weekends' on a farm for children from disadvantaged inner city areas. Until recently, she was Chairman of a charity in Oxfordshire that is providing therapeutic counselling for families who are struggling to cope with their new babies. She strongly believes that the life chances for a child are profoundly affected by their experience as babies during the first two years of life.
Andrea is a Conservative because she believes it is conservative values that through history have led to the great 'leaps forward' for the people of Britain in making a better life for themselves and their communities.
Andrea Leadsom's Experience
Andrea has been campaigning for the Conservatives since 1984, and fought her own local election campaign in 2003, where she beat the Liberal Democrat leader of South Oxfordshire District Council by 11 votes in a seat she had held for 16 years.
In 2005, Andrea was the Conservative candidate for the parliamentary constituency of Knowsley South, a Labour stronghold. She enjoyed the campaign tremendously, working with a small group of Conservative activists but making an impact by touring the Merseyside constituencies with the other candidates in a vintage double decker campaign bus, with her ten-year old son doing sterling work on the megaphone.
Andrea is delighted to be selected as the first MP for South Northamptonshire. Her family comes from the area - her mother grew up in Ashton, her father attended Magdalen College School in Brackley and she spent many family holidays as a child on a narrowboat on the Grand Union canal. Her family lives in a village close to Towcester, in the heart of the constituency, and she is committed to serving the interests of local people.