[3][4][5] He was the Liberal Democrats' shadow foreign secretary in 2015 under Nick Clegg's leadership and Spokesperson for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2019 to 2022, with responsibility for the Northern Powerhouse from 2019 to 2020.

Tim Farron was born on 27 May 1970 in Preston, and was educated at Lostock Hall High School and Runshaw College, Leyland,[7] before going on to Newcastle University, where he gained a BA in Politics in 1992.

[8] Farron has described how, in his youth, his bedroom bore pictures of widely differing politicians as the assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy, former Liberal Party leader Jo Grimond, and then–Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

[7] Before his election to Parliament, Farron worked in higher education at Lancaster University from 1992 to 2002[8] and St Martin's College, Ambleside, from 2002 to 2005.

[13] Farron contested North West Durham at the 1992 general election, coming third with 14.6% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour Party MP Hilary Armstrong and Conservative candidate Theresa May.

[18] At the 2001 general election, Farron contested the Westmorland and Lonsdale seat and finished second, reducing the majority of the sitting Conservative MP Tim Collins to 3,167.

[21] As a new MP, he became a member of the Education and Skills Select committee and was appointed as Youth Affairs Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.

[24] Farron resigned from the front bench of the Liberal Democrats on 5 March 2008 in protest at the party's abstention from a parliamentary vote on a proposed Conservative referendum on Britain's accession to the Lisbon Treaty.

[30] On 27 May 2010, Farron stood for the position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, made vacant by the resignation of Vince Cable.

On 16 September 2010, Farron stood for the position of President of the Liberal Democrats following Baroness Scott's decision not to seek re-election.

These were rural affairs, the EU referendum, mental health, immigration, civil liberties, the green economy, and housing.

[51] Referring to Nick Clegg's earlier pledge not to raise fees—and the previous long-standing Liberal Democrat policy of abolishing them—he said: "Integrity is important.

[13] In the 2016 Liberal Democrat Spring Conference, Farron accused the government of cowardice and heartlessness over their current refugee policy.

[56] In May 2015, regarding a court ruling which found that a Belfast bakery had acted unlawfully in refusing to carry out an order for a cake in support of gay marriage, Farron said that "it's a shame it ended up in court" and "it's important that you stand up for people's rights to have their conscience," but "if you’re providing a service, that’s the key thing – you need to do so without prejudice, without discrimination against those who come through your door.

"[57] He voted in favour of allowing marriage between two people of same sex at the second reading of the 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, but he voted not to timetable the debate on the Bill, which would have made it much more difficult to pass had the House of Commons agreed with his position,[58] over concerns of the impact the "spousal veto" could have on trans people.

[64] Despite this, Lord Paddick resigned from his post as home affairs spokesperson in June 2017 "over concerns about the leader's views on various issues".

[65] In 2018, Farron expressed regret over his previous assertions that he did not consider homosexual sex to be sinful, saying he felt under pressure from his party which led him to "foolishly and wrongly" make a statement "that was not right".

[70] Despite describing himself as "a bit of a Eurosceptic",[71] Farron strongly supported Britain's membership of the European Union,[72] but criticised David Cameron's renegotiation as "about appealing to careerist Tory MPs, who were selected by Europhobic party members, to persuade them to vote to remain".

He criticised the move publicly as part of "ever increasing list of the cost of Brexit" and held the position that the plan was "a completely superficial expenditure which could have been spent on our hospitals and our schools.