Dame Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom DBE (/ˈlɛdsəm/;[1] née Salmon; born 13 May 1963) is a British politician who served in various ministerial positions under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak between 2014 and 2024.

After graduating with a degree in political science at the University of Warwick, she began a career in finance including working as Institutional Banking Director at Barclays,[4] and later as Senior Investment Officer and Head of Corporate Governance at Invesco Perpetual.

[13][21] Her role was to work on "special projects", mostly for the Chief Investment Officer, which included negotiating pay terms for senior fund managers.

[13][24] At the 2005 general election, Leadsom stood in Knowsley South, coming third with 12.3% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Eddie O'Hara and the Liberal Democrat candidate.

[29] In September 2011, she co-founded the Fresh Start Project with fellow Conservative MPs Chris Heaton-Harris and George Eustice to "research and build support for realistic and far-reaching proposals for reforming the EU".

[30][31] On 25 October 2011, Leadsom was one of 81 Conservative MPs to defy the party whip and vote in favour of holding a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.

[42] In April 2013 at the Hansard Society's annual parliamentary affairs lecture, Leadsom warned against the UK leaving the European Union, stating that "I think it would be a disaster for our economy and it would lead to a decade of economic and political uncertainty at a time when the tectonic plates of global success are moving.

"[48] In July 2014, The Independent revealed that Leadsom had received a series of donations totalling £70,000 to pay for printing and research costs for the company FSP over the course of three years.

"[55] As Minister, Leadsom launched the consultation to ban microbeads, being personally opposed to them, stating "Most people would be dismayed to know the face scrub or toothpaste they use was causing irreversible damage to the environment, with billions of indigestible plastic pieces poisoning sea creatures.

[60] Immediately following the result of the Brexit referendum, David Cameron announced that he would resign as leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister.

[64] In a BBC interview on 7 July 2016, Leadsom spoke of her disappointment about plotting in the leadership race, including alleged attempts by opponents to block her from the final ballot.

[66] She also stated that she would review the Hunting Act with a focus on animal welfare if elected, and was asked about her concerns over the legislation passed to introduce same sex marriage.

[68] Bob Yerbury, former Chief Investment Officer at Invesco Perpetual and Leadsom's former manager, dismissed the controversy about how she described her time there and described her as "totally honest".

[77] Leadsom's comments were widely criticised;[78] with fellow Conservative MPs including Sarah Wollaston and Anna Soubry suggested that the remarks showed she lacked the judgement to be Prime Minister, and called upon her to withdraw.

It excludes all the information that might be of interest, so she has not published her tax return.”[82] Former conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith alleged that the intensity and nature of the sniping at Leadsom revealed ulterior motives, unconnected to her fitness for the post, saying to journalist Robert Peston that they indicated "a kind of real 'black-ops' operation to denigrate her reputation", writing later it constituted a "concerted and brutal attempt to destroy her character".

"[86] Norman Tebbit described the efforts to remove her candidature as an intense smear campaign, saying that he suspected they may have arisen from her opposition to gay marriage as much as her Euroscepticism.

[87] On 11 July 2016 Leadsom withdrew from the Conservative leadership election, stating that she did not have enough support for her cause, with only a quarter of the votes from the parliamentary party.

Her campaign manager, Tim Loughton MP, spoke about an "onslaught of often very personal attacks from colleagues and journalists" as well as "underhand tactics against decent people".

[93] On 14 July 2016, following Theresa May's election as Leader of the Conservative Party, and the formation of the first May ministry, Leadsom was appointed to the cabinet as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Constitutional experts Jo Murkens and Colin Talbot agreed it was a health issue and therefore not affected by the election and the government was instructed to appear in the high court to explain the delay.

[95] In her role as head of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Leadsom stated she was "personally deeply committed to the importance of ensuring clean air".

[97] Tim Farron described her remarks as "a sinister threat to the free media", a comment echoed by Hugo Rifkind in The Times,[98] whilst Peston on Sunday mockingly displayed his patriotism by decorating the studio with Union Jacks.

Amid laughs from both benches, she corrected herself, adding: "Greatest ever authors, and I think it's fantastic that at last we are starting to recognise – well I think many of us probably wish she were still living – but I absolutely share the sentiment.

"[101] On 19 July 2018, Leadsom proposed, as an amendment to the Independent Complaints and Grievance Policy, that the identity of any MP under investigation by the commissioner for standards should be kept confidential.

The issue came to a head due to the imminent caesarean section delivery by Tulip Siddiq at the time of the rescheduled meaningful vote on 15 January 2019.

The Times reported that senior Government ministers feared that it was already too late to meet the Brexit deadline of 29 March, and that Conservative MPs had been told that a one-line whip was expected to be imposed on votes in the Commons during the week of 18–22 February.

[111] In May 2020 the environmental law charity ClientEarth unsuccessfully sued the UK Government after Leadsom approved proposals for the expansion of the gas-fired Drax Power Station in Yorkshire.

On 3 November 2021, Leadsom tabled an amendment to scrap the suspension of Owen Paterson for 30 days due to a breach of Commons advocacy rules regarding lobbying as part of his second jobs.

[119] In the November 2023 British cabinet reshuffle, Leadsom returned to the frontbench as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Primary Care, Start for Life and Public Health.

[125] NORPIP was originally set up with funding from the Ana Leaf Foundation, of which Leadsom's sister Hayley, wife of Peter de Putron, is a trustee.