Five new Lib Dem peers
Five new Liberal Democrat members of the House of Lords have been announced today:
- Julia Aglionby, Executive Director of the Foundation for Common Land, Professor of Practice at the University of Cumbria, and agricultural valuer
- Hannah Kitching, former NHS physiotherapist, Mayor of Penistone, and former Leader of the Opposition on Barnsley Council
- Tim Leunig, Chief Economist at Nesta, Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Government, Director of Economics at Public First, and former senior civil servant
- Dave McCobb, Liberal Democrat Director of Campaigns who masterminded the party’s best ever election results, and former Hull City Councillor
- Mark Petterson, entrepreneur and pioneer in offshore wind
I am absolutely delighted that Julia, Hannah, Tim, Dave and Mark will be joining our brilliant Liberal Democrat team in the House of Lords.
Each of them has the right skills, experience and values to help us hold the government to account, deliver the change people need, and fix our broken politics, including reforming the House of Lords.”
Ed Davey
Julia Aglionby
Julia is a champion of upland farming and the environment as the Executive Director of the Foundation for Common Land and a practising agricultural valuer. She is a Professor in Practice at the University of Cumbria’s Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas, and a Commissioner of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission.
Julia previously served as a member of the Board of Natural England, and before that was an environmental economist in Southeast Asia. She now lives in Cumbria on a charitable care farm called Susan’s Farm, of which she is a Trustee. She is a keen river swimmer and campaigns to tackle water pollution in the River Eden.
Julia has stood for the Liberal Democrats in two general elections: first in Carlisle in 2019, and then in Penrith and Solway in 2024.
Hannah Kitching
Hannah is a former NHS physiotherapist who joined the Liberal Democrats soon after the Brexit vote in 2016. When she won election to Barnsley Council in 2018, Hannah was the only Liberal Democrat on the council. She built up our group to 12 councillors and became the Leader of the Opposition to a Labour administration.
As a Councillor, Hannah focused on youth and family issues, including serving as a school governor and chairing the Early Help Delivery Group. She stood down from Barnsley Council this year, but is still Mayor of Penistone and a Penistone Town Councillor.
Hannah is Chair of Yorkshire Liberal Democrats and Vice Chair of the English Party. She is also a member of the Federal Board and the Federal Conference Committee, all with a focus on driving progress and electoral success. She stood for the Liberal Democrats in the 2024 South Yorkshire mayoral election.
Tim Leunig
Tim is an economist who has won multiple international prizes for his work. He spent more than a decade as a senior civil servant advising eight different Cabinet ministers, during which time he invented the furlough scheme – which saved more than 3 million jobs in the Covid pandemic – and the Progress 8 method for evaluating secondary schools.
He taught at the London School of Economics for 25 years, and has held visiting professorships at universities in the US and continental Europe. Tim now serves as a Visiting Professor of Practice in the LSE School of Public Policy, as well as an Honorary Professor in Politics at UCL.
He is currently Chief Economist at Nesta, Director of Economics at Public First, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Government, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Economic Society, the Royal Historical Society, the Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Society of Arts.
Dave McCobb
Dave has been described as the “mastermind” behind the strategy that secured 72 seats for the Liberal Democrats at the last general election – the best result in the party’s history. He has also overseen the party’s longest ever winning streak in local elections, with eight consecutive rounds of net gains.
Dave has extensive personal experience in local government, serving as a Liberal Democrat Councillor on Hull City Council for 24 years before stepping down this year. He helped the party win majority control of the council in 2007 and again in 2022.
Dave started working for the party in 2004 and took over as Director of Field Campaigns in 2020. The party’s review of the 2024 election campaign identified Dave as part of the “small, tightly-bound team” that was “the single biggest contributor to the Liberal Democrats’ success”. He will continue as the party’s Campaigns and Elections Director.
Mark Petterson
Mark is a renewable energy pioneer and the UK’s leading independent developer of offshore wind, with three projects successfully in operation.
He is Director of Warwick Energy, a company he co-founded in 2000, and his projects include Thanet, the largest offshore wind farm in the world when it came onstream in 2010. His 45-year entrepreneurial career in the energy sector has spanned a variety of technical, commercial and managerial roles.
Mark has been a member of the Liberal Democrats for over 25 years, and has been an informal adviser to the party for more than a decade. He has long supported charities involved in tackling youth homelessness, particularly Centrepoint, and has been a Trustee of Banbury Young Homelessness Project since 2016.
These appointments follow on from Shaffaq Mohammed, Mark Pack and Caroline Pidgeon in 2024, and Mike Dixon, Rhiannon Leaman and Sarah Teather in 2025. Find out more about our Liberal Democrat peers here.