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John Burnett, Baron Burnett

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For similarly-named people, see John Burnett.

John Patrick Aubone Burnett, Baron Burnett (born 19 September 1945) is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom, and was Member of Parliament for Torridge and West Devon for 8 years, covering 2 elections 1997-2001 and 2001-5, until he stepped down at the 2005 general election. He has been - briefly - a commando with the Royal Marines, a sometime cattle-breeder, and remains a solicitor specialising in tax matters. He succeeded Emma Nicholson as MP for the constituency, capitalising on her timely defection in 1995 from the Conservative Party to the Liberal Democrats, and her elevation as a Liberal Democrat peer, as well as the profound national mood of change in 1997 after 18 years of Conservative rule. In 2005, it was widely judged that Burnett would lose to the Conservative candidate Geoffrey Cox QC, whom Burnett had beaten in 2001, in a rather bad-tempered contest. Following Burnett's decision to stand down, there was a swing of 5,000 votes in the 2005 election against Burnett's Liberal Democrat successor as candidate. The constituency has been reduced in size in a 2006 Boundary Commission re-alignment, although the impact of this is unclear. To much surprise, in April 2006 it was announced that Burnett would be created a life peer to join the Liberal Democrat ranks in the House of Lords, and on 31 May he was created Baron Burnett, of Whitchurch in the County of Devon. Burnett for much of his 8 years in Parliament had been regarded among his fellow Liberal Democrat MPs as "the cat that walked alone" : he famously distanced himself over his Party's stance on the war in Iraq, for example, preferring to follow Blair's pro-American unequivocal support for the war there. The party in Parliament at the time was described as "54 MPs plus one" [the "one" being Burnett]. Burnett has also followed the Conservative Party stance on issues such as gay rights. It is widely assumed that Burnett was rewarded with his peerage for his work as the Liberal Democrat representative on the small House of Commons Pensions Committee, which negotiated what is regarded as the best public sector pension scheme in the country, with superb benefits accruing for minimal service, including for wives/partners of deceased MPs. Political wags have suggested alternatively that he was rewarded for his ability in his final year as an MP to claim more Parliamentary expenses than any other MP, at around £172,000, on top of his generous MP's salary. The high point of Burnett's parliamentary career was his promotion of the Bill which created "Limited Liability Partnerships", allowing solicitors, for example, to remain in the traditional partnership arrangements while having some of the benefits of limited companies.