David Steel MP, he was responsible for introducing, as a Private Member's Bill, the Abortion Act 1967, and has argued for greater liberalisation of this legislation in recent years (see Abortion in the United Kingdom). He also became the Liberal Party's spokesman on employment, and in 1970 its Chief Whip. In 1976, after the downfall of Jeremy Thorpe, and a short period in which Jo Grimond acted as caretaker leader, he won the Liberal leadership by a wide margin over John Pardoe. At only 38 years old, he was one of the youngest party leaders in British history. In March 1977, he
Ronald Gardner-Thorpe Ronald Gardner-Thorpe Colonel Sir Ronald Laurence Gardner-Thorpe (13 May 1917 – 11 December 1991), was a British company director and Liberal Party politician who also became Lord Mayor of London in 1980. Gardner-Thorpe was the son of Joseph Gardner and Hannah Coulthurst Thorpe. He was educated at St John's College, Portsmouth. In 1938 he married Hazel Mary Dees. They had one son. Gardner-Thorpe was Liberal candidate for the Eastbourne division of Sussex at the 1959 General Election. The Liberals had not run a candidate at the previous election in 1955. He managed a respectable 18% poll, finishing third. He was