He cites the early pioneers of community politics in Liverpool, including Cyril Carr, Trevor Jones and David Alton, as having had a major influence on him.

Rennard was Alton's agent when he successfully contested the newly created Liverpool Mossley Hill constituency in 1983 (after boundary changes) and helped to secure an excellent result there in a general election that saw a landslide Conservative victory nationally.

He married Ann McTegart[citation needed] (whom he had met when they were both Liberal Party agents in Merseyside in the 1980s) and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1989 New Year Honours.

Following the Lib Dems' victory at Brent East in 2003, The Independent profiled Lord Rennard, saying calling him "a Liberal democrat who knows how to win elections" and saying that "In recent years thoughtful Conservatives surveying their wretched political predicament sometimes wondered aloud where "their" Peter Mandelson was.

For while Rennard enjoys a rather lower profile than New Labour's sultan of spin, the Liberal Democrats' own election guru is a no less formidable operator.

True, Rennard has not managed to take the Liberal Democrats to Downing Street with a landslide majority, but it is in large part to him that the party owes its revival, the latest evidence of which was its victory in Brent East.

This turbulent period came to an end in March when he oversaw victory in the 2006 Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, which brought the total of Liberal Democrats MPs to 63.

[23] He chaired the Liberal Democrat general election campaign for both Sir Menzies Campbell and Nick Clegg between summer 2006 and May 2009, when he stood down as Chief Executive of the Party.

[25] He indicated that he had discussed standing down some time earlier with the party leader, Nick Clegg, and that this was for family and health reasons, saying that he had "struggled to maintain good diabetic control with the rigours of a very demanding lifestyle".

He is the Director of Communications for the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) and writes a regular "Westminster Watch" column for their Bulletin.

[32] He was also responsible in the House of Lords for the cross-party amendment that blocked the proposed review of parliamentary boundaries, thought by some to favour the Conservatives by up to 30 seats at the next general election.

[34] A subsequent complaint made by the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics was investigated by the Clerk of the Parliaments Michael Pownall, who did not uphold it, "In view of the assurances by Lord Rennard about the change in his circumstances and the time he spends in Eastbourne, and in the absence of any definition of main address in the current guidance to the House of Lords’ Members Expenses Scheme".

[35] In February 2013, Channel 4 News ran a report on Lord Rennard, alleging a history of sexual harassment during his time as an official of the party.

[38] The earliest claims go back to 2007 when two women met Paul Burstow, then the party's Chief Whip in the Commons, to raise the issue with him.

[40] The "indirect and non-specific concerns" he had been told about meant that he could take no further action,[40] but Danny Alexander, Clegg's chief of staff at the time, had warned Rennard that the alleged behaviour would be "wholly unacceptable".

[41] A subsequent independent report in June 2013 by Helena Morrissey into "processes and culture within the Liberal Democrats" said that the leadership should have held an inquiry into the allegations at that time (when Rennard was still a member of staff).

[42] There was no such inquiry until that conducted by Alistair Webster QC, who concluded after examining over a hundred statements (including those made by the complainants as a result of interviews with specially trained police officers) that the evidence was insufficient to proceed to a disciplinary hearing.

[45] Following the police "No Further Action" decision, the Liberal Democrats resumed their own inquiry with Alistair Webster QC acting as "independent investigator."

"[47] Webster's public statement on his conclusions from his report stated that there was "broadly credible" evidence of "behaviour which violated the personal space and autonomy of the complainants.

Lord Rennard issued a lengthy personal statement in response to his suspension explaining some of the background to the allegations made against him and the party's handling of them.

"[61] In November 2017, the Party's Deputy Leader (and future Leader), Jo Swinson, expressed her desire in a comment piece that Lord Rennard would not be a Liberal Democrat member, writing "That Lord Rennard remains in the party, showing no remorse or contrition, while many of the women involved have left, fills me with sadness and anger ...

A Special Conference triggered by Party members opposed to the decision was averted when Rennard agreed to resign his Committee membership following a public intervention by Tim Farron, who stated "Chris serving on the FE is not in our best interest, as the levels of anger and division have shown.

[64] The launch was mired in controversy, when it turned out Lord Rennard was being investigated by the information commissioner for a breach of data protection law by sending unsolicited emails promoting the book to Lib Dem supporters.