managing director of Fitch IBCA, and from 1999 to 2003 was vice-chairman of Fitch Ratings. Huhne was economics editor, leader writer and columnist for The Guardian, and economics editor, assistant editor and columnist for The Independent on Sunday. He was the business editor of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday during its investigations into Robert Maxwell's fraud on the Mirror group pension fund. He started as an undercover freelance reporter in India during Indira Gandhi's emergency when western journalists had been expelled. He also worked for the Liverpool Echo and The Economist as its Brussels correspondent between 1977 and 1980. He won both the junior and senior Wincott awards for financial journalist of the year in 1980 and 1989 respectively. Along with his work in newspapers and magazines he co-wrote the book Debt & Danger: The World Financial Crisis (Penguin, 1985) with Harold Lever, and wrote Real World Economics (Penguin 1990). Parliamentary candidate Huhne contested the 1983 general election as a Parliamentary candidate for the SDP–Liberal Alliance in Reading East coming second, and in the 1987 general election he was the SDP–Liberal Alliance candidate in the Oxford West and Abingdon seat, a seat that would be won ten years later by Liberal Democrat candidate Evan Harris. Member of European Parliament (1999–2005) In June 1999 Huhne was elected as a member of the European Parliament for South East England. The Liberal Democrats came third with a total of 228,136 votes behind the Conservatives and Labour. The proportion of votes received meant that the party was able to send the top two list candidates to the European Parliament, Emma Nicholson the top list candidate and Chris Huhne, second on the list. During the 2004 European Parliament elections Huhne was re-elected along with Emma Nicholson with the party having received 338,342 votes, 15% of the total vote. In 2005 Huhne stood for election to the United Kingdom parliament representing the seat of Eastleigh in Hampshire. After he was elected as a Member of the House of Commons on 5 May 2005, Sharon Bowles, the candidate third on the Liberal Democrat list, replaced Huhne as representative for the South East of England. During his time in the European Parliament, Huhne was the only Liberal Democrat MEP in a ranking by The Economist of the three highest-profile UK MEPs (the others being Glenys Kinnock and Caroline Lucas). He was a member of the Economic