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Biography
David Frank Bellotti (13 August 1943 – 10 June 2015) was a British Liberal Democrat politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Eastbourne constituency from 1990 to 1992.
Bellotti first contested the Eastbourne seat at the 1979 general election, subsequently fighting Lewes in the 1983 and 1987 general elections under the Liberal banner. He then won the parliamentary seat of Eastbourne for the Liberal Democrats in the Eastbourne by-election following the assassination of Conservative MP Ian Gow by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). He became the first person to be elected as a Liberal Democrat MP after the party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the SDP.
Two years later Bellotti was defeated by Nigel Waterson in the 1992 general election in which John Major's Conservative government was re-elected.
He subsequently unsuccessfully contested the East Sussex and Kent South constituency in the 1994 elections to the European Parliament.
Bellotti returned to local government, regaining a seat on East Sussex County Council and was elected chairman of Sussex Police Authority. He then became CEO of Brighton & Hove Albion, a position in which he controversially took part in the sale of the football club's stadium after their articles of association had been changed, allowing for profit to be made on the sale of the Goldstone Ground. This change was however reversed on the insistence of the Football Association, preventing directors from taking out more than they had invested. Bellotti became reviled by Brighton fans and left the area shortly afterwards.
After leaving the football club and losing his council seat Bellotti moved to Bath and became election agent for Don Foster MP. In May 2003 David Bellotti was elected councillor for Lyncombe ward on Bath and North East Somerset council and was re-elected in 2007 and 2011. He was appointed as chairman of the council for 2008/9 and was the council's cabinet member for resources for four years. He died on 10 June 2015, aged 71.