monarch website predecessor successor children birth_place leader religion party office birth_date term_start spouse image article_title term_end name alma_mater
elizabeth ii -lsb- http://www.alanbeith.org.uk official website -rsb- charles from 1979 -rrb- cyril smith viscount lambton kennedy russell johnston position established john pardoe -lrb- paul lib dems -rrb- david alton anne-marie trevelyan tyler menzies campbell simon hughes russell johnston -lrb- 1 daughter 1 son poynton , cheshire charles kennedy charles kennedy david steel david steel kennedy -lrb- until 2006 -rrb- paddy ashdown charles methodism liberal -- present -rrb- -lrb- before 1988 -rrb- liberal democrats -lrb- 1988 lib of the liberal democrats liberal democrat home affairs spokesman deputy dem leader of the liberal party liberal chief whip in the shadow commons member of parliament for berwick-upon-tweed leader of the commons deputy leader 20 april 1943 29 1985 1977 8 november 1973 august 1999 11 april 1992 12 july 1994 barbara baroness maddock -lrb- 2001 -- present -rrb- ward -lrb- 1965 -- 1998 -rrb- diana , alan beith mp liverpool.jpg alan beith
 15 16 july 1988 1985 30 march 2015 may 2003 12 february 2003 29 august 1999 sir alan beith oxford university -lrb- ma , blitt -rrb-
alan beith

sir alan james beith pc -lrb- born 20 april 1943 -rrb- is a british politician who represented the constituency of berwick-upon-tweed as its member of parliament -lrb- mp -rrb- from 1973 until 2015 .
from 1992 until 2003 he was deputy liberal democrat party leader and , by 2015 , sir alan was the longest-serving of his party sitting in the house of commons and the last lib dem -lrb- `` formerly '' liberal -rrb- mp to have experience of parliament from the 1970s .
beith was elevated as a life peer in the 2015 dissolution honours list and , after consultation with garter king of arms , will take his title and a seat on the house of lords opposition benches in the autumn of 2015 .
