Edward was born in Mansfield on Christmas Day 1965. His father died when he was four and his mother when he was fifteen.

Edward went to Nottingham High School (1974-84). After a 'year off' working in a pork pie factory and hitchhiking round Spain, he gained a first class in PPE at Jesus, Oxford (1985-1988) and was elected College President.

Edward worked for Paddy Ashdown becoming the Lib Dem's Senior Economics Advisor (1989-1993). He developed policies such as the penny on income tax for education, studying at night for an Economics MSc.

Then Edward worked for a management consultancy, Omega Partners, (1993-97), travelling widely. In 1994, he received a Royal Humane Society award for rescuing a woman from the path of an oncoming train at Clapham Junction.

In 1997 Edward achieved a surprise 1997 election victory in Kingston and Surbiton, a traditional Conservative stronghold, by just 56 votes.  Following this victory Edward was appointed to the Treasury team by Paddy Ashdown. Charles Kennedy then made him London Spokesman and Treasury Deputy, where he served on the Treasury Select Committee between 1999 and 2001.

After his landslide victory in the 2001 election, where the majority of 56 was increased to 15,676, Edward was promoted to the post of Shadow Secretary for the Office of Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) in 2002.  In this role, Edward was in charge of Lib Dem policy on local government and the regions.

Following re-election in 2005, Edward was again promoted to the Education and Skills brief, a post that he held until the election of Menzies Campbell as new leader of the Liberal Democrats in March 2006.  During that month Menzies Campbell put Edward in charge of the Trade and Industry portfolio, as well as tasking him to undertake a review of the party’s campaigning techniques.

He has gained a reputation as a hardworking constituency MP, holding eight times the number of advice surgeries than his Conservative predecessors managed.

Edward lives in Surbiton with his wife Emily.