 The son of Douglas Austin Reed and his wife Mary Ellen Philpott, he was educated at Gresham's School in Norfolk and University College, Oxford.Reed served his National Service with the Royal Navy from 1956 to 1958, and from 1963 to 1966 worked and studied the EEC at Brussels, Bruges, Leiden, Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Paris, Rome, Bologna and Geneva.He worked at the Public Sector Research Unit from 1967 to 1970, and was elected as Member of Parliament for Bolton East in 1970, serving until 1974.