David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville

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David John Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville FRS (born 24 October 1940) is a British businessman, politician and peer in the Labour Party.

He is the son of Sir Robert Sainsbury and the nephew of Lord Sainsbury. His cousin is the Conservative peer Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover.

Sainsbury retains a large shareholding in his family's Sainsbury's supermarket chain (estimated at 18%). He was the group's Finance Director from 1975 to 1992 and Chairman from 1992 to 1998. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 his family fortune was estimated at £1.6 billion.

He holds a BA degree in History and Psychology from King's College, Cambridge and an MBA from Columbia University. On 10 September 2007, he was awarded an honorary degree in Science at the University College London. Before that he attended Eton College.

Sainsbury was a supporter of the Social Democratic Party, including significant financial support, and changed allegiance to the Labour Party following the failure of the SDP to make substantial progress. He has donated millions of pounds to the Labour Party, and has been associated with the Institute for Public Policy Research.

He was made a life peer as Baron Sainsbury of Turville, of Turville in the County of Buckinghamshire in 1997, following Labour's election victory. From July 1998 to November 2006 he held the post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Trade and Industry with responsibility for Science and Innovation in the House of Lords, an unpaid government position.

In July 2006 he was questioned by police in the "Cash for Peerages" inquiry, for a £2m loan to the Labour Party.

On 10 November 2006 he resigned as science minister stating that he wanted to focus on business and charity work.^[1]

David Sainsbury is a noted philanthropist and founded the Gatsby Charitable Foundation in 1967. The foundation has given £500m to a range of charitable causes.^[2] In 1993 he donated a further £200m in shares to the Foundation's assets.^[3]

He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 2008 ^[4].