[5] Born in London on 15 March 1951,[6][7] His father was a Desert Rat who had served in the Eighth Army, and then worked for the Ford Motor Company.

[8] Alton was elected as Member of Parliament for Liverpool Edge Hill at a by-election in 1979 for the Liberal Party, when he became the "Baby of the House", achieving a record swing of 36.8% and 64% of the vote.

Alton held a number of spokesman posts for the Liberals: environment and race relations, 1979-1981; Home Affairs, 1981-1982; Northern Ireland, 1987-1988.

[9] He is known for his anti-abortion position, and in 1987 he resigned as Chief Whip to campaign for his unsuccessful private member's bill which aimed to stop late abortions.

A motion passed in Spring 1993 stating that the party had no position on the substantive issue of abortion spared him delivering on the promise.

[13] On 26 March 2021, it was announced that Alton was one of two members of the House of Lords to be sanctioned by China for spreading what it called "lies and disinformation" about the country.

[15][16] On the 12 December 2022, Alton was sanctioned by Iran, along with the Chief of the Defence Staff, a Government Minister, Members of Parliament, as well as other individuals and institutions from the UK.

[22] Alton campaigned against the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, opposing the creation and use of animal-human hybrid stem cells for medical purposes.

[23] He is a patron of the International Young Leaders Network[24] and Save the Congo!, a small international rights group founded by the Congolese rights activist Vava Tampa to end the political crisis that continues to give rise to wars, conflicts and violence that have killed over 5.4 million people in Congo.

[27][28] During the 2019 Hong Kong Polytechnic University conflict, he issued a statement calling for the end to police violence and criticising Chief Executive Carrie Lam.

Importantly, with the United Nations having shown itself incapable of making such decisions, the determination of whether genocide has taken place would be made by the High Court of England and Wales.

At the presentation the Dean said "He has dedicated his life to fighting oppression and made this noble cause the cornerstone for his work as a politician and public intellectual.”[35] Alton was granted arms in 1997.