| Paul Keetch | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Hereford |
|
| In office 2 May 1997 – 6 May 2010 |
|
| Preceded by | Sir Colin Shepherd |
| Succeeded by | constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 May 1961 Hereford |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal Democrats |
| Spouse(s) | Claire Elizabeth Baker |
| Website | www.paulkeetch.org.uk |
Paul Stuart Keetch (born 21 May 1961, Hereford) is an English Liberal Democrat politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hereford from 1997 to 2010.
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He went to Hereford High School for Boys (grammar school, since 1976 the comprehensive Aylestone School), then Hereford Sixth Form College. Keetch was elected a Liberal to Hereford City Council in 1983. He was a self-employed business consultant from 1979-1995. Since 1996, he has been a non-executive director of the London Computer Company.
Keetch was elected to be the MP for Hereford at the 1997 general election. He was the Liberal Democrat spokesman for Foreign Affairs from 1999-2001, and Defence from October 1999 until the May 2005 general election.
In July 2005, Keetch succeeded Sharon Bowles MEP as Chair of the Liberal International British Group. He also sat on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. He founded the Cider APPG.
Keetch announced in December 2006 that he would step down at the 2010 general election.[1] As with all other members, Keetch relinquished his rights as an MP when Parliament dissolved on 12 April 2010.[2]
In 2007 the Liberal Democrats selected Sarah Carr as their candidate to replace Keetch for the revised Hereford and South Herefordshire constituency at the 2010 general election.[3]
He married Claire Elizabeth Baker on 21 December 1991 and together they have one son.
On 8 July 2007 he was taken seriously ill whilst travelling to the United States on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow Airport. Onboard medics treated him as the pilot turned the aeroplane back to London, and he was admitted to London Chest Hospital. The following day a spokesman described his condition as "stable", though the cause of his illness remained undetermined.[4] Doctors eventually diagnosed him with idiopathic ventricular fibrillation and fitted an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator to combat any relapses, though his condition was described as a "one-off".[5]