Profile: Lib Dem leadership contender Norman Lamb

Mr Lamb has won the backing of two former leaders, Menzies Campbell and Paddy Ashdown

Despite being the outsider in a two-horse field, Norman Lamb is far from a no-hoper in the Lib Dem leadership race.

The 57-year old has powerful allies in the party, having served as Nick Clegg's chief of staff in opposition and parliamentary private secretary during the first two years of the coalition government.

He has been endorsed by a host of senior figures including two former leaders - Paddy Ashdown and Menzies Campbell - who have praised his political judgement, authority and ability to reach out to people of different political persuasions and none.

His championing of mental health issues has gained him admiration from across the political spectrum.

And he also enjoyed the unlikely kudos that comes from being endorsed by rapper and singer Dappy, member of N-Dubz, who has collaborated with his music producer son Archie.

'Stupid mistakes'

However, the father of two and North Norfolk MP seemingly has two major obstacles to overcome if he is to win the support of enough party members to assume the leadership of his party.

Unlike his rival Tim Farron, Mr Lamb was a minister in the Tory-Lib Dem coalition for three years and is personally associated with the controversial decisions on spending, tax and welfare which many activists blame for its worst election result in its history - in which only Mr Lamb and seven colleagues survived.

Although he has vigorously defended the decision to join forces with the Conservatives, saying the party acted in the national interest at a time of economic crisis, Mr Lamb has conceded the party made "stupid mistakes" during its five years in power.

The party, he admits, was not "ruthless" enough in its dealings with its partners, failing time and again to gain credit for popular policies and to get across to a sceptical electorate why unpopular decisions were necessary.

Who is Norman Lamb?

• MP for North Norfolk since 2001

• Employment lawyer before entering Parliament

• Employment relations and care services minister in the coalition government

• Norwich season ticket holder

• Son Archie discovered rapper Tinchy Stryder

Foremost among these was the party's backing for raising the cap on university tuition fees to £9,000, a u-turn which broke a pre-election pledge not to do so. Unlike Mr Farron, Mr Lamb supported the move in the key Commons vote in December 2010.

Despite these apparent disadvantages, Mr Lamb, who has been portrayed as the "centrist" candidate in the race, has said there is little to separate him from his rival on policy, citing his support for legalising assisted dying as their one major area of disagreement.

But that is not to say the two contenders are identikit politicians, far from it.

They were born a generation apart and while Mr Farron has spoken openly about how his Christian faith influences his political values, Mr Lamb has said he is agnostic and does not draw his liberalism from any personal faith.

This distinction, it appears, was at the heart of the one acrimonious moment of an otherwise good-natured campaign, when Mr Lamb was forced to dismiss two aides who had, unbeknownst to him, privately polled party members about Mr Farron's beliefs.

Polling row

Mr Lamb apologised publicly for the episode, which Mr Farron characterised as an attempt "to play the man not the ball" - an analogy that, as a keen Norwich City fan, would not have been lost on Mr Lamb.

The son of a climatologist and grandson of a distinguished mathematician, Mr Lamb was born in Watford and educated in Norfolk before graduating with a law degree from the University of Leicester.

He left university at a volatile time in British politics, with the SDP's formation shaking the foundations of what, despite the efforts of successive Liberal Party leaders, had become a two-party system in all but name.

In an otherwise good-natured campaign, the two men clashed over private polling done by Mr Lamb's team

A meeting with SDP founder Shirley Williams has been cited as a key moment in Mr Lamb's decision to throw in his lot with the nascent SDP-Alliance, rather than Labour - for whom he briefly worked as a parliamentary researcher in the 1980s.

Mr Lamb learnt the political ropes by sitting on Norwich City Council and had several stabs at getting elected before making it to Westminster, contesting his Norfolk seat twice before being elected to Parliament in 2001.

'Dark days'

An employment lawyer before he entered Parliament, Mr Lamb's first proper ministerial role in the coalition was, somewhat appropriately enough, as minister of state for employment relations in charge of workplace issues and consumer policy.

But it was a social care minister that Mr Lamb really made his mark. Handed the job in September 2012, in a reshuffle which saw Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley leave his job, Mr Lamb helped reduce the political temperature which had reached boiling point as a result of Mr Lansley's controversial NHS reforms and managed to push social care up the political agenda.

On the back of a good working relationship with Jeremy Hunt, Mr Lansley's successor, Mr Lamb was also able to secure extra funding for mental health - long regarded as the Cinderella service within the NHS.

He has also campaigned for it to be given parity of esteem with physical health within the NHS.

Mr Lamb has been open that his interest in mental health has a very personal dimension.

In a newspaper interview in March, he revealed that his son Archie had been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder aged 15, a condition which, in his words, lead to "dark days" and a "very traumatic" decade for his family.