Richard Leese

Leese was born and brought up in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. He was educated at The Brunts School and went on to the University of Warwick, graduating with an undergraduate degree in Mathematics.[1]

Initially, Leese worked as a teacher of mathematics at Sidney Stringer School in Coventry[1] and as an exchange teacher at Washington Junior High School in Duluth, Minnesota, USA before moving to Manchester to take up a post as a youth worker. Leese has been employed variously in youth work, community work, and education research 1979–1988.

Leese was elected to the Manchester City Council in 1984 and was its deputy leader from 1990 until 1996, having previously chaired the Education Committee (1986–1990) and Finance Committee (1990–1995). As of 2011 he is a Labour councillor in the Crumpsall ward.[5]

He was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2006 List after overseeing the 10-year regeneration of the city after the IRA bomb of 1996. He was awarded a Knighthood for "services to local government".[6]

Leese was one of the main advocates of Congestion Charging in Greater Manchester, as part of a bid to the Government's Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) for a £2.7 billion package of transport funding for Greater Manchester. Congestion charging was ultimately rejected by the local population in a referendum.[7][8][9]

He is current chair of the North West Regional Leaders Board (4NW).

On 14 April 2010 the BBC reported that Leese had stood down temporarily from his post as leader of Manchester City Council after having been arrested on suspicion of the common assault of his 16-year-old stepdaughter. He was released after accepting a police caution and admitting striking his stepdaughter across the face.[10][11]

On 2 October 2019, during a full council meeting, Liberal Democrat opposition councillor Richard Kilpatrick was questioning council leader Richard Leese on the council's preparations for schools and hospitals in the event of a no-deal Brexit. In his first response to the questioning, Leese said that the Liberal Democrats were deliberately trying to stop Brexit, referencing their new 'Revoke and Remain' policy. This prompted Kilpatrick's followup question to admit this was the case and said Leese should "bite the bullet and vote Lib Dem at the next election". Leese responded: “I’d need a bullet in the brain to do that! Come on!” Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron MP told Politics Home he thought the comments were “unhelpful and divisive."