Lembit Öpik: Difference between revisions

Lembit Öpik (IPA for Estonian pronunciation: ['lem.b̥it 'øpik]) (born 2 March 1965) is a British politician of Estonian origin. He is a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Montgomeryshire constituency and is also his party's shadow spokesman in opposition to the Secretary of State for Wales and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Biography

His parents were refugees from Estonia who settled in Northern Ireland. Lembit was born in Bangor, County Down and grew up there with sister Urve Öpik (born 1960, a psychotherapist) and brother Endel "Tal" Öpik (12 April 1968-21 November 2005 [1], a musician). He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He took a degree in philosophy at the University of Bristol, where he became President of University of Bristol Union, and was also on the National Union of Students National Executive Committee.

Before his election to Parliament in 1997 he was a personnel manager at Procter & Gamble Ltd. He had stood in Newcastle upon Tyne Central in the 1992 election. Although unsuccessful he was elected as a councillor on Newcastle City Council.

Parliament

At the 1997 general election, the Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire, Alex Carlile, retired. Öpik was elected as his successor, with an increased majority. He retained the seat at the 2001 election and at the 2005 general election, his majority falling very slightly in 2001 but increasing again in 2005 to over 7,000 votes.[2]

To the general public he is perhaps best known for his concerns about the possibility of an asteroid impact on Earth, his advocacy for increased funding for attempts at detection, under the banner of Spaceguard, and his relationship, as reported in December 2006, with Gabriela Irimia of the music duo The Cheeky Girls. His grandfather was Ernst Julius Öpik, an Estonian astronomer who worked at Armagh Observatory.

He was also joint chair of the Middle Way Group, a cross-party parliamentary group which supported the regulation, not banning, of fox hunting. In 2001/2, he chaired an Ethics Committee overseeing production of the BBC series, The Experiment, a reproduction of the Stanford Prison Experiment. From 1999 to 2001 he was a member of the Agriculture Select Committee.

Public appearances

Öpik has appeared several times on the BBC satirical current affairs quiz show, Have I Got News For You. He became a member of the Spinal Injuries Association after a near-fatal paragliding accident in 1998 broke his back in 12 places.

Liberal Democrat party elections

Öpik garnered an unfortunate reputation for backing campaigns that soon collapse.

In September 2004 he campaigned for the internal party election for the position of President of the Liberal Democrats, which was won by Simon Hughes.

During the 2006 leadership crisis, Öpik was a fervent supporter of Charles Kennedy and urged him to retain the leadership. Immediately following Kennedy's resignation due to alcoholism on 7 January 2006, Öpik said to BBC News 24 that he would support Mark Oaten in the leadership contest if Oaten chose to stand. When Oaten did, Öpik became his campaign manager, but it soon emerged that he was the only MP publicly backing Oaten, who subsequently withdrew from the contest after revelations of a rent boy scandal.

Öpik has said he will stand for President when Simon Hughes' term ends in two years and that he would stand in the leadership contest after next.^[1]

Personal life

Öpik speaks fluent Estonian and is learning Welsh.

Öpik was engaged to ITV 1 weather presenter Siân Lloyd, from 2002 to October 2006. The couple lived at Öpik's consitiuency house in Powys, and were due to marry in 2006. They met at a Liberal Democrats conference session where the Press meet the MPs, where they talked and she lost a ring. He found it, then lost it himself, then found it again two years later and called her - she had a spare ticket to go to the The Proms, and they started a relationship^[2] She called him the most fascinating man I've ever met and revealed that they enjoy sharing late night baths.^[3] They appeared on Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on 15 April, 2006, winning £64,000 for charity.

In December 2006 it was revealed that the relationship had broken down, as Lloyd became more frustrated with Öpik's lifestyle, the heavy workload of a parliamentarian and the Westminster drinking culture; and that Öpik had become involved with 24-year-old Gabriela Irimia of The Cheeky Girls pop duo^[4][5]. During various debates in Parliament on 10 January, 2007, he was subject to much leg pulling and ribbing over his new relationship from fellow MP's^[6].

See also

• Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team
• The Cheeky Girls

References

External links

• ePolitix.com - Lembit Öpik official site
• Lembit Opik MP profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• Lembit Opik MP profile at the site of Welsh Liberal Democrats
• The Parliamentary Middle Way Group
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Lembit Opik MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Lembit Opik MP
• The Public Whip - Lembit Opik voting record
• Open Directory Project - Lembit Opik directory category
• BBC News - Politics: Lembit Opik profile 10 February, 2005

Offices held