Richard Foord

Foord stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for North Somerset in the 2017 general election, reaching third place. He was elected to parliament in the 2022 Tiverton and Honiton by-election. In his victory speech, he made a critique of Boris Johnson's lack of integrity as a leader: "By any measure you are unfit to lead".

Before the election he was International Collaboration and Export Control Manager at the University of Oxford having previously worked at the University of Exeter since 2010, most recently as acting head of global partnerships. He grew up in North Somerset and lived in Yatton for 19 years; by 2017, he lived in Uffculme, Devon.

Having attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Foord was commissioned into the Educational and Training Services Branch of the Adjutant General's Corps of the British Army on 13 April 2001. He was promoted to captain on 13 October 2003. After attending Staff College, he was promoted to major on 31 July 2009. He served in both the Balkans and Iraq, receiving three campaign medals.

Richard John Foord (/fɔːrd/; born 13 February 1978) is a British politician and former British Army officer who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tiverton and Honiton in Devon since 2022. A member of the Liberal Democrats, he won the seat in a by-election held on 23 June 2022, following the resignation due to scandal of the previous Conservative MP Neil Parish.

Foord was born in February 1978 in Weston-super-Mare and went to school in Backwell. He has a BA in history from Royal Holloway, University of London, an MSc in global security from Cranfield University and an MBA from the Open University.