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 2019. The current membership is as follows.
Chair and Vice-chairs
Vince Cable MP – Chair
Vince is Member of Parliament for Twickenham, and Leader of the Liberal Democrats.
Duncan Brack – Vice-chair
Duncan is a directly elected member of the FPC.
An independent environmental policy analyst, he 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.
Jeremy Hargreaves – Vice-chair
Jeremy is a directly-elected member of the FPC.
He has been chair of the groups writing party policy on public services, taxation and quality of life in recent years, as well as vice chair of FPC, chair of the Lib Dem European Group (LDEG), and a PPC. His professional background is as a strategy consultant in professional services, local government, and most recently as a senior manager in the NHS.
Sarah Ludford – Vice-chair
Sarah Ludford is a member of the House of Lords and is a representative of the peers on the FPC.
The President
Sal Brinton – Party President
Sal Brinton is President of the Liberal Democrats and a member of the House of Lords.
Representatives of the Parliamentary Parties
Catherine Bearder MEP – MEP rep
Catherine is a Member of the European Parliament for South East England.
Tony Greaves – Peer rep
Tony Greaves is a member of the House of Lords.
Qurban Hussain – Peer rep
Qurban Hussain is a member of the House of Lords.
Norman Lamb – Commons rep
Norman is the Member of Parliament for North Norfolk.
Representative of the Federal Communications and Elections Committee
James Gurling
James is Chair of the Federal Communications and Elections Committee.
James was elected 3 times to Southwark Council. James was a press Aide to Paddy Ashdown on the '97 General Election tour and later Leadership Election Agent to Charles Kennedy. James has previously served as Chair of the Campaigns and Communications Committee.
Elected councillors
Heather Kidd – Councillor rep
Heather is a Shropshire councillor.
She is a science teacher by profession and was first elected as a councillor in Shropshire in 1996. She has represented the Chirbury and Worthen ward of Shropshire Council since 2009 and served as Joint Leader of South Shropshire District Council in 2001 and Leader in 2003. Heather’s passion is rural affairs but particularly rural housing which local people can afford. She is Chair of the Lib Dem Exec on the LGA where she is the group leader on the rural and non-metropolitan People & Places Board. She is on the management committee of ALDC.
Paul Tilsley – Councillor rep
Paul is a Birmingham City councillor.
He has been a member of Birmingham City Council since 1968. From 2005-2012 was Deputy Leader of the Council. Senior manager in the Voluntary Sector for 25. Interests Health, change management, football, rugby and cricket.
State Party representatives
Geoff Payne – English Party 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.
Peter Price – Welsh Party rep
Peter, who was an MEP for 15 years and remains heavily involved as ‘an insider’ in EU affairs, is a passionate opponent of Brexit. He represents FPC on the Parliamentary International Affairs Committee, Party International Relations Committee and ALDE Council. He has served on several manifesto drafting groups and policy working groups. He was a part-time Employment Judge for 12 years and has had a series of public roles relating to Welsh devolution.
Other directly elected members
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.
Sally Burnell
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.
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.
Antony Hook
Antony was running mate to Catherine Bearder MEP and chaired the Liberal Democrat European Election Campaign in the South East - the only region that secured the election of an MEP in 2014. He has over 16 years’ experience as a local and regional party officer. In May 2017 he was elected to Kent County Council, where he is Opposition Spokesman on Economic Development. He is barrister and is passionate about defending justice.
Kamran Hussain
Kamran is the Policy Chair for Yorkshire & The Humber Liberal Democrats and is the regional Brexit spokesperson. He previously led the EU Referendum Campaign for the region. Away from politics, Kamran is a solicitor and a partner in a Leeds based law firm.
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.
Susan Juned
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. A county councillor for 12 years, a district councillor for 24 years and contributor to several Policy Working Groups and the Green Book.
Alisdair 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.
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.
David Weston
David has been Vice Chair of the Education Policy Working Group and Secretary of Watford Liberal Democrats. Outside of the party, David is a charity CEO, author, speaker, Chair of a Department for Education expert group, co-founder of LGBTed and organ donation campaigner. David was previously a physics teacher for 10 years.
Chris White
Chris was elected a county councillor in Hertfordshire in 1993 and group leader in 1994. He is currently leader of the opposition on St Albans District Council. He was Deputy Leader of the LGA Liberal Democrat Group (2011-2017) and on the Board of the Audit Commission (2005-2011).
Jim Williams
Jim is an international development aid worker and entrepreneur turned full time Lib Dem activist. He has policy experience across the international development, foreign affairs, and security & justice fields, having worked for eight years' work in these fields in London, Washington DC, and Islamabad. Jim is also the founder of Your Liberal Britain, the Lib Dem activist movement.
Non-voting members
Andrew Wiseman – FCC Chair
Andrew is Chair of the Federal Conference Committee.
Andrew is a former leader of a London Borough Council, as well as being a former Chair of ALDC and Green Lib Dems. Away from politics Andrew is recognised as one of the country’s leading solicitors specialising in environmental law and is a former Chair of the UK Environmental Law Association.
Richard Kemp – LGA rep
Richard represents the Local Government Association's Lib Dem Group.
He is the Leader of the Lib Dems in Liverpool where he has served for 35 years as a councillor. He is a former Leader of the Lib Dems in local government and UK rep on the world body for local government (UCLG). He is the Lib Dem spokesperson on Health & Social Care at the Local Government Association and chair of World Merit a global charity involving young people in the work of the UN in their own community.
Marisha Ray – EMLD rep
Marisha is currently (Feb 2018) vice-chair of Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats and a member of the Policy Working Group on Race Equality, parliamentary candidate for Chipping Barnet, vice chair of a primary school governing body in Islington North and a member of the board of trustees of the Franco-British Council. She divides her time between London and Cambridge.
Observers
Robert Woodthorpe Browne – FIRC Chair
Robert attends FPC as Chair of the Federal International Relations Committee.
