John Pardoe
| John Pardoe | |
|---|---|
| Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party | |
|
In office 7 July 1976 – 3 May 1979 |
|
| Leader | David Steel |
| Preceded by | Donald Wade |
| Succeeded by | Alan Beith |
| President of the Liberal Party | |
|
In office 1971–1972 |
|
| Leader | Jeremy Thorpe |
| Preceded by | Inga-Stina Robson |
| Succeeded by | Trevor Jones |
| Member of Parliament for North Cornwall |
|
|
In office 31 March 1966 – 3 May 1979 |
|
| Preceded by | James Scott-Hopkins |
| Succeeded by | Gerry Neale |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 27 July 1934 |
John Wentworth Pardoe (born 27 July 1934) is a retired British businessman and Liberal Party politician.
Pardoe was educated at Sherborne School, a boarding independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, followed by Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was active in the famous Footlights drama club; one critic of their 1955 revue panned future comedian Jonathan Miller whilst predicting a bold comedic future for Pardoe.
In the 1964 general election, Pardoe stood as the Liberal candidate against Margaret Thatcher in Finchley. In the 1966 election, the Liberal Party increased its number of MPs from nine to twelve: one of them was Pardoe, who captured the North Cornwall seat from the Conservative Party's James Scott-Hopkins. He rapidly became the party's Economic Affairs spokesman in parliament and was respected for the intellect of his views, if not for the often partisan nature of his comments.
In 1976, after the resignation of Jeremy Thorpe, Pardoe was a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party. He lost to David Steel, who received 12,541 votes to Pardoe's 7,032.
In 1978, John Pardoe MP played the fairy-tale Liberal prime minister in BBC Radio 4's Christmas Pantomime, Black Cinderella Two Goes East, on the basis that Liberal prime ministers exist only in fairy tales. The 'often partisan nature of his comments' became a running gag within the programme.
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