Jones’s family were Conservatives until his brother joined Eric Lubbock’s Liberal by-election campaign in Orpington in 1962. Jones joined the Liberal Party in 1975, only to lose his Cheltenham council election the following, and then selected to take on Conservative city MP Charles Irving in 1979 – losing by 10,538 votes. With Jones out of the country, the influential Liberal general Richard Holme twice cut Irving’s majority, before Lord Holme of Cheltenham was created. Jones was elected as a councilor in 1989 and then in 1991 was chosen to fight Cheltenham again – ahead of his ex-wife and the council leader. Irving withdrew before the 1992 election and the Conservatives chose the black barrister John (now Lord) Taylor despite racist opposition within the local union. The Cheltenham campaign attracted national attention and proved difficult for Jones, as any criticism of his rival could be misconstrued. He focused on promoting himself and his party and vocally condemned racism. Jones’ strategy paid off. In a night that also saw the Lib Dems capture Bath from John Major’s party chairman Chris Patten, Cheltenham fell by 1,668 votes. At Westminster, Jones became his party’s spokesperson on housing, but became frustrated with the time-consuming Commons procedures. He walked out of the committee considering the government’s housing bill after Tory ministers reneged on their promise to accept some Lib Dem amendments. In early 1993, he discovered that Education Secretary John Patten had instructed his officials to send him an “insulting response” to a letter, but only a “harsh and harsh response” to a Labor MP. That November, Ashdown gave Jones a more fulfilling technology portfolio. since 1995 he has been handling consumer cases. In the 1997 election, as New Labor came to power and the Lib Dems made gains, he quadrupled his majority to 6,645. He was the party’s spokesman in turn for sport and culture, trade and industry and international development. When Labor MPs first voted to ban fox hunting, Jones voted against it. He regretted that Labor was pushing ahead with Conservative government plans to build a new GCHQ under the Private Finance Initiative.
