Remit:

The Federal Policy Committee is responsible for researching and developing policy and overseeing the Federal Party’s policy-making process. This includes producing policy papers for debate at conference, and drawing up (in consultation with the parliamentary party) the Federal election manifestos for Westminster and European elections.

Members are expected to take part in policy working groups (which draw up policy papers, preceded by consultation papers) at some point during their terms of office, and to contribute fully to the policy-making process, including in engaging with party groups and on occasion external experts. Members will also have designated links to regional parties and to SAOs, and are expected to listen, talk and work with their link organisations. 

The Leader of the Party is the Chair of the Committee. FPC has three Vice Chairs, including one Parliamentarian and two other members of the committee. The Vice Chairs chair the FPC in the absence of the Leader, and play an active role in ensuring policy development and the effective running of the committee.

The Membership of the Federal Policy Committee is as follows:

The next elections are due to take place in Autumn 2022. The current membership is as follows. 

Chair and Vice-chairs

Ed Davey MP – Chair 

Ed is Member of Parliament for Kingston and Surbiton, and Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Sally Burnell – Vice-chair

Sally is director of policy and media and strategy for the British Veterinary Association and has previously worked for the Liberal Democrats in the press office, in local government and in Wales. Sally joined the Party as a teenager and is particularly interested in criminal and social justice, equality issues, animal welfare, and housing and homelessness.

Jeremy Hargreaves – Vice-chair

Jeremy is a freelance consultant and non-executive in public services, with a background in the NHS, local government, education and consulting. He has been chair of the Lib Dem European Group (LDEG), a parliamentary candidate, chaired party policy working groups on taxation, public services and wellbeing, and is now vice chair of the party’s Federal Board. He believes passionately in Britain’s place in Europe, a secure international order, and a fair society. He is committed to finding ways to communicate Liberal Democrat values in a clear vote-winning message, supported by strong policies.

The President

Mark Pack 

Mark Pack is President of the Liberal Democrats and Acting Co-Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Representatives of the Parliamentary Parties

Wera Hobhouse MP - Commons Rep

Wera Hobhouse is Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change.

Tony Greaves – Peer rep

Tony Greaves is a member of the House of Lords.    

Sarah Ludford – Lords rep

Sarah Ludford is a member of the House of Lords.

Dr. Julie Smith – Lords rep 

Dr. Julie Smith is Baroness Smith of Newnham, Lords Spokesperson on Defence. 

Representative of the Federal Communications and Elections Committee

Lisa Smart

Lisa Smart is a Liberal Democrat councillor and campaigner and has been the parliamentary candidate for Hazel Grove at the last three General Elections. Lisa is a Lead Regional Peer for the LGA and trains and supports Lib Dem councillors in the North and Midlands.

Outside the Lib Dems, Lisa sits on various boards and advisory panels including the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, a local primary school governing board and the Stockport Canal Boat Trust. Formerly the Chief Executive of an international development charity, Lisa also held senior roles in financial services.

Elected councillors

Susan Juned – Councillor rep

Susan has worked with universities, local government and business on plant genetic resources, sustainable development, urban and rural policy, resource management, renewable energy, energy efficiency and research dissemination. She was a county councillor for 12 years. During 25 years as a district councillor, she has served as a Council Leader and is currently an opposition Group Leader. She has contributed to many Policy Working Groups and the Green Book.

Peter Thornton – Councillor rep 

Peter is Deputy Leader of Cumbria County Council and a former Leader of South Lakeland District Council. He spent most of his working life as a photographer and used to run makeover studios at the BBC Clothes Show. Peter is married with three children, one of whom is a Councillor with her eye on his job. Hobbies, when he has time, are canal boating and cycling.

State Party representatives

Oliver Craven – English Party rep

Elinor Anderson – Scottish Party rep

Alec Dauncey – Welsh Party rep

Alec is a long-time member of the Liberal Democrats and lives in Wales. He has been a candidate for Westminster and the European Parliament, and a Special Adviser to Liberal Democrat ministers in the Welsh Government. More recently he has been chair of the Welsh Liberal Democrat Policy committee. He is a professional forester, and has worked on forestry and international climate policy in Whitehall. He teaches forestry at Bangor University.

Other directly elected members

Aria Babu

Duncan Brack 

An independent environmental policy analyst, Duncan was a special adviser to Chris Huhne at the Department of Energy and Climate Change during the coalition government. He edits the quarterly Journal of Liberal History and co-edited Reinventing the State: Social Liberalism for the 21st Century (2007) and The Green Book: New Directions for Liberals in Government (2013). He was chair of Federal Conference Committee 2003-10.

Belinda Brooks-Gordon

Belinda is the Regional Brexit Spoke for the Eastern Region, a member of Regional Exec, and a former County Councillor in Cambridge. Nationally she is an elected ALDE Party council member. She is a Reader in Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London, where she is also Asst Dean for Equalities.

Alisdair Calder McGregor

Alisdair has been a member of the party for just under a decade, and has particular interest in policy on LGBT+ issues, the sustainable rural economy, transport, and information technology & data protection. He is the FPC liaison to the LGBT+LD SAO and the Parliamentary Transport Group and has twice been a Parliamentary Candidate. Outside of politics he is a IT consultant living in West Yorkshire.

Christine Cheng

Christine found her way to FPC through the Britain in the World Working Group, of which she is Vice Chair. She is committed to increasing the number of women candidates in politics (TEDx talk). Outside the party, Christine is Lecturer in War Studies at King’s College London. Previously, she taught PPE at Oxford. She did her first degree in systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo, where she was also president of her student union.

Richard Cole

Richard is a former councillor and group leader who now works for the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors. He has a degree in Biological Sciences and a career background including running a printing business. He has particular interest in local government related policy and in making policy relevant to campaigning.

Tara Copeland

Tara moved to London from Edinburgh in 2017 and joined the Liberal Democrats getting involved with her local party and the Young Liberals. She was policy officer for the Young Liberals for two terms and is now Chair of the organisation. She is currently studying for her Master’s Degree in History.

Helen Cross

Helen is an experienced businesswoman who specialises in Robotics and AI. After becoming politically active to oppose of Brexit, Helen has stood as a PPC and on the London list for the European Parliament. She has been Vice Chair of London Region and on the executive of Liberal Democrat Women.

Alyssa Gilbert

Alyssa is an energetic mother and borough of Brent member. She was on the Lib Dem policy climate change policy working group and brings 20 years of environmental policy experience to the FPC. Professionally, she is currently the Director of Policy and Translation at the Grantham Institute - Climate change and the Environment at Imperial College London where she connects relevant research across the university with policy-makers and businesses. Prior to joining the university, she worked at a specialist energy and climate consultancy, at the GLA and as a journalist on Environmental Policy in Brussels. Alyssa has a degree in Natural Sciences. 

Robert Harrison

Robert is Chair of the Liberal Democrats in Europe and has lived in Germany for almost 30 years. He has a Ph.D. in Physics and is a qualified patent and trade mark attorney. He currently works as a consultant and company director for high-tech companies. He has been a European Parliamentary Candidate for the German liberal FDP and, in addition to his interest in science and tech policy, has been involved in developing policy on European affairs.

Elizabeth Jewkes

Elizabeth has been an active member of the party for over 30 years. She has stood for election to both the local council and parliament numerous times. She is currently the Chair of the Lib Dem Christian Forum and Co Vice Chair of Lib Dem women. She is best known as the creator of our policy to raise the income tax threshold. She lives just outside Chester.

Mohsin Khan

Mohsin is a hospital doctor working in forensic psychiatry. He has had previous experience in the Department of Health, the House of Commons, and at a major health think tank. Within the Lib Dems, Mohsin is Vice-Chair of the Lib Dem Campaign for Racial Equality (and used to be their rep to FPC before he was elected in his own right). He is also Chair of a Regional Policy Committee, an English Council member, a former local party vice-chair, and has sat on many national Policy Working Groups over the years.

Catherine Royce

Catherine is a medical doctor and surgeon, with extensive international R&D and project management experience. Previous PPC  for Westminster,  party activist and member of the  working group which produced Age Ready Britain.Her passions are women’s equality and a radical new NH&CS properly-staffed and paid for out of general taxation.

Non-voting members

Geoff Payne– FCC rep

Geoff represents the English Party on the FPC and FCC, and is a former Chair of what is now Liberal Youth. He is a barrister specialising in cases involving allegations of serious fraud and/or white collar crime.

TBC – LGA rep

TBC – LDCRE rep

Hannah Vandersluis - Young Liberals rep 

Observers

Jonathan Fryer – FIRC Chair

Jonathan attends FPC as Chair of the Federal International Relations Committee.