Edward Davey - Early Life

Early Life

The son of a solicitor father and teacher mother, Edward Davey was born in Annesley Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire. His father John died when Davey was four years old, and his mother Nina (née Stanbrook) eleven years later, following which he was brought up by his mother's parents. After attending senior school at the independent Nottingham High School (in common with MPs Kenneth Clarke, Geoff Hoon and Ed Balls) in the year above Ed Balls, where he was head boy in 1984, he furthered his education at Jesus College, Oxford where he was awarded a first class BA degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1988. Whilst at Oxford, he was also elected to the JCR presidency of Jesus College.

As a teenager he worked at Pork Farms pork pie factory and at Boots. In 1989, he became an economics researcher for the Liberal Democrats (principally to Alan Beith, the party's Treasury spokesman), while studying at Birkbeck College, London for a master's degree (MSc) in Economics. During that time he proposed making the Bank of England independent, a policy enacted by the Labour Party following their election in May 1997. In 1993, he took up the position of management consultant with Omega Partners until being elected.