Federal Council

Antony Hook - Chair of Federal Council

Antony Hook joined the party in 1998.  He was Member of the European Parliament for South East England and is a member of Kent County Council where he leads the Liberal Democrat Group. He has served on a wide variety of party committees locally, regionally and nationally.

He was called to the Bar in 2003 and has practiced as barrister in the UK and internationally since then. He worked for the Crown Prosecution Service for four years as a senior frontline prosecutor of fraud, drugs and financial crime. The rest of his professional career, before and after his CPS service, has been in private practice and his expertise in crime is complimented by experience in mental health, employment and local government law.

He has coached and advised on negotiation, speech writing and speech delivery.

He has two children and is passionate about education, opportunities for young people and support for families.

Mark Valladares - Directly Elected Member

Mark joined the Liberal Party in 1984 and never quite escaped. By dint of often being too polite to say no, he has risen to just far enough from the top of Party organisations to go unnoticed by many whilst delivering a series of useful roles over the years - European Returning Officer, Regional Secretary (in two Regions) and member of English Candidates Committee, to name but three. In doing so, he has managed to travel the world, be kind to people who deserved it and had more fun than he's had any right to.

Most of his activity in the Party in recent years has revolved around its international work, as a member of the Federal International Relations Committee and now as a Party delegate to the ALDE Party Council, where he has served as Returning Officer and as a member of its Financial Advisory Committee.

His particular interests are in process and diversity and, when he is not doing liberal bureaucracy, he is Chair of Creeting St Peter Parish Council in Suffolk's Gipping Valley. 

Ed Sainsbury - Directly Elected Member

Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett - Directly Elected Member

Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett joined the Liberal Democrats in 2006 and has been a well known LGBTQ+  activist, campaigner, candidate and hard working party Member over nearly twenty years of party Membership.

Adrian joined Leyton & Wanstead Liberal Democrats where he first stood as a Council Candidate in 2010 and 2014, followed by then moving to Lambeth Borough Party where he stood in 2015 and 2018 as a Council Candidate. In the meantime, Adrian led the Party’s campaign on same-sex marriage, writing the motion to conference as Chair of  LGBT+ Liberal Democrats for which he chaired from 2010 to 2013 and again in 2016 as well as Vice President of LGBT+Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2019.

In 2015, Adrian became the first openly HIV+ Candidate to stand in a UK General Election in Vauxhall, and then subsequently in Ipswich in 2017 and 2019. They have just been recently selected to stand in Old Bexley & Sidcup for the General Election in 2024.

Along with Adrian’s equalities recognised leadership their other main interest is on International and Global affairs for which Adrian currently sits on the Federal International Relations Committee as an Elected Member since 2023, having been a Co-opted Member from 2017 -2022, and is now elected as Chair of Global South, Commonwealthh and International Development Sub Committee (previously they were FIRC Secretary), and also  they also are both the Liberal International British Group (LIBG)  and Liberal Democrat representative on Liberal International Human Rights Committee (LI HRC)  as joint spokesperson for LGBTQ+ rights. Adrian previously chaired LIBG from 2018 to 2021 and was Vice-Chair of LDEG from 2014-2016  and returned to Vice Chair for communications in 2023.

Adrian also works voluntarily in the House of Lords as Equalities Research Advisor to Baroness Burt of Solihull and is also Chair of the Membership Committee for the National Liberal Club.

Candy Piercy - Directly Elected Member

Candy was a founder member of the Lib Dems and is probably best known in the Party as a trainer, mentor and coach.

Having been an Agent at all levels of elections, she was Deputy Director of Campaigns for the Lib Dems for nearly ten years. Candy was the winning Agent for the 1998 Winchester By-election, turning a majority of 2 at the previous year's General Election, into a majority of nearly 22,000! At that point she decided to go out on a high and stopped working formally for the Party.

Candy has been one of the driving forces behind the Campaign for Gender Balance (CGB) which runs training, coaching & mentoring aimed at getting more women elected to Westminster, the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments and to every level of local government.

She has a special interest in all forms of diversity, writing and delivering the Party’s training on Unconscious Bias. Candy also supports and trains on behalf of the Racial Diversity Campaign, CGB’s sister organisation.

Candy has trained political activists in over 30 new democracies around the world for organisations such as the EU and UN. She was awarded an MBE in 2014 for services to politics and international democracy.

Chloe Hutchinson – Directly Elected Member

Chloe is a Policy Officer for a health and disability charity and lives in South Wales. Since joining the Party in 2014, she has held a number of roles in the Young Liberals and the Welsh party, and worked for the Party alongside running in the 2021 Senedd election.

Outside the Liberal Democrats, Chloe volunteers with her local Women's Aid and helps run @ThatsDevolved. She is currently the Welsh Lib Dem Exec Officer for Policy Development, and one of the Honorary Vice Presidents for Young Liberals.

Chris Northwood - Directly Elected Member

Chris is a Lib Dem campaigner in Manchester.

She grew up in Yorkshire and now leads a software development team for a tech-for-good startup which builds software allowing victims of bullying and harassment to access support, and for organisations to identify any trends or issues that need addressing systematically.

Clare Delderfield - Directly Elected Member

Clare is a member in South Cambridgeshire.  She has been chair of her local party, and C3, and is a current member of the Regional Executive. She is a committed campaigner and believes it is important that those in governance positions keep a focus on electoral success whilst protecting the core liberal values of our party. 

She chaired the County, Mayoral and PPC campaign in Cambridgeshire in 2021, resulting in Lib Dems leading the County Council. She also played a leading role in the South Cambs District Council election in 2018, where the party won control of the council. She was a district councillor from 2018-2022.

Clare was the Campaign Manager for Ian Sollom in the South Cambridgeshire 2019 GE Campaign, securing one of the biggest swings for the party that year and turning the seat into a top target.  She is delighted to now be the Campaign Manager for Ian Sollom in the new seat of St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire. 

Gareth Lewis Shelton - Directly Elected Member

Gareth is an entrepreneur working in the creative industries, and holds a MSc in Political Economy of Europe, with a special interest in welfare and business.

Gareth is also a Vice-Chair of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats, and can be found on Twitter at @garethlshelton.

Gordon Lishman - Directly Elected Member

Cllr Gordon Lishman CBE has been a Party member for 60 years and closely associated with party strategy development, particularly from 1970 to the Ashdown/Kennedy years.

He is Chair of the Social Liberal Forum; Secretary of the Parliamentary Candidates Association and Deputy Chair for the National Liberal Club Ltd. 

Gordon was also Founder Chair of the ALDC; Chief Executive of the Age Concern Group and Chair for the Federal International Relations Committee (1988- 2006). 

For most of 1969-2020, he has been a Party Executive, Federal Board member and therefore fully experienced in challenging authority!

Hannah Perkin - Directly Elected Member

Hannah works full time as a Development Officer for the South East Region Liberal Democrats and ALDC.

She is a Councillor at Swale Borough Council and also Chair of Standards there. Hannah is also a Councillor at Faversham Town Council, where she Chairs the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, and the Faversham Disability Forum.

Hannah has a background in hospitality management, volunteer coordination and communications; and is a trustee of her local foodbank and Citizens Advice Service.

James Gurling - Directly Elected Member

James was elected three times to Southwark Council, serving variously as Group Chair, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Communications & Performance Improvement, as well as Chair of the Planning Committee. He has served in every HQ General Election team since being Press Aide to Paddy Ashdown in 1997 and was later Leadership Election Agent and adviser to Charles Kennedy.

James has chaired two General Election campaigns (2017 & 2019) and conducted the 2010 & 2015 election reviews.

A Managing Director in a communications consultancy, in 2010-16, he was Chair of both the Federal Campaigns & Communications Committee and the Federal Communications & Elections Committee.

Lisa Maria Bornemann - Directly Elected Member

A German native, Lisa-Maria moved to the UK post university and now works as a team manager in the public sector, where she is actively involved in the LGBT+ network and the Mental Health First Aiders’ group at her workplace.

Lisa-Maria joined the Liberal Democrats after the 2015 General Election, realising that if she wanted things to change, getting involved was the way forward.

In 2017, Lisa-Maria was among the founding members of Liberal Democrat Immigrants and has been its Chair ever since. She has also stood in parliamentary and local elections.

Mark Johnston

Mark Johnston has been an experienced EU policy professional for over two decades.

Active in the Party since 2016, he aims to help Lib Dems win power at all levels, and for the country to recover and restore all we have lost outside Europe.

Sarah Cheung Johnson - Directly Elected Member

Sarah Cheung Johnson is Chair of Chinese Lib Dems and Vice-Chair of the East of England Regional Committee.

She spent four years as a District Councillor on South Cambs District Council and in 2019, was part of the campaign team for the South Cambs General Election campaign and the 2019 East of England European Elections, with a focus on Social Media campaigning.

Sarah has previously worked as a Journalist in Asia, in Investment Banking Technology and is currently working for the University of Cambridge on a project on Industrial Innovation Policymaking.

Sarah is British HK Chinese, lives with her mixed neurodivergent and neurotypical family in Cambridgeshire and is particularly passionate about supporting minorities both within the Party and our communities.

Simon McGrath - Directly Elected Member

Simon joined the Liberal Party at University in 1976 because of its opposition to apartheid and support for gay rights and civil liberties.

Since then he has had a number of roles including being Chair of the Association of Liberal Trade Unionists, Parliamentary and Council candidate and local party officer.

He is currently Secretary of the London Region and the English Party rep on the Federal Board.

Simon is a strong believer in “4 cornered Liberalism “ – Political, Social, Personal and Economic, and is on the Board of Liberal Reform.

Stephen Robinson - Directly Elected Member

Stephen is Leader of Chelmsford City Council, where they are guiding Chelmsford's growth to create a greener, fairer and more-connected community. The Group there is one of the more diverse Lib Dem ruling groups in the country.

Stephen is also Co-Chair of the Campaigns Team in the East of England Lib Dems.

Terry Stacy - Directly Elected Member

Terry is Head of Office for the Liberal Democrat group at the Local Government Association, the national trade body for local government in England and Wales.

A former senior local government officer, he has worked across the country and has been an adviser to both national and regional government on a range of subjects both here in the UK and across Europe.

In addition to being a Councillor for over 16 years and a former leader of Islington Council, Terry has held a number of local, regional and national positions in the Liberal Democrats, and before that, the Liberal Party, during his 30+ years membership of the Party.

Terry is Chair of Tonic Housing, the UK’s first provider of LGBT+ affirmative retirement housing. He is also Vice-Chair of Rentplus Hones - a pioneering housing provider helping people into homeownership.

Terrry was awarded an MBE for services to local government and housing in 2014.

Tim Brett - Directly Elected Member

Tim has been a member of the party for over 20 years. He was a councillor for 19 years and Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Fife Council for 10 of these.

He has been both a Westminster and Holyrood Parliamentary candidate and is currently Chair of the Party in North East Fife.

Tim continues to support Wendy Chamberlain MP; Willie Rennie MSP; and the local Council team in all aspects of campaigning.

His interests include Health & Social Care, and outside of the Liberal Democrats, he is a keen hill walker, having completed all of the Munros.

Zoe Hollowood - Directly Elected Member

Dr Zoe Hollowood is a PhD scientist who has worked in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector for 20 years and currently works for a medical charity.

Zoe is part of the Food & Farming Policy Group within the Liberal Democrats, in addition to her roles on the English Council and Federal Council.

Aidan Van de Weyer - Councillor Rep

Aidan has been a Liberal Democrat Councillor on South Cambridgeshire District Council since 2013. He led the 2018 election campaign which saw the Lib Dems take control of the Council, serving as Deputy Leader from 2018 to 2021.

He also ran the office of one of the Lib Dem MEPs in 2019. Aidan was an agent in a target seat in the 2017 and 2019 General Elections and helped run the Cambridgeshire local election campaign in 2021, which saw the Lib Dems take over the leadership of the County Council.

Aidan works as a town planner, specialising in large-scale renewable energy projects.

Sam Bennett - Councillor Rep

Sam has been an active campaigner for the Welsh Liberal Democrats in Ceredigion, Brecon and Radnorshire and now Swansea and Gower.

Sam served as Young Liberals, then IR Cymru, Chair from 2011 to 2014. In 2019 Sam became the lead MEP candidate for Wales leading the Welsh Lib Dem campaign against Brexit.

He is now a Councillor in Swansea, taking the Waterfront ward with 60% of the vote and gaining the first new ward for Swansea and Gower since 2008.

Prue Bray MBE - England Rep

A Councillor for Winnersh since 2000, Prue is Deputy Leader of the Lib Dem run Wokingham Borough Council and the lead member for Children's Services there.

She is a school governor, parish councillor, Neighbourhood Action Group member and trustee of a local charity.  In 2023, Prue was awarded an MBE for her services to politics, both locally and nationally.

Prue has been a long standing party volunteer with roles ranging from Chair of the Party’s English Candidates Committee, where she oversaw the selection and approval of parliamentary candidates, to Vice Chair for the English Party.

Since 2020, Prue has served as Chair of the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners (ALDC), which supports councillors and campaigners across the country. There, she has helped revolutionise the Party’s campaign capacity, culminating in a strong set of local election results. In 2021 she was the recipient of the Leader’s Award.

Richard Flowers - England Rep

Richard is a member based in Tower Hamlets, London. He is a Chartered Accountant working for a European skincare and beauty company. He's married to Alex Wilcock and helped Millennium Elephant to write his award-winning diary. 

Richard has been treasurer of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats, Lib Dem Immigrants, and Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats. He's also been a parliamentary candidate in Macclesfield and a GLA candidate in East London.

Pete Dollimore - English Party Representative

Pete is a retired manager from the broadcasting world and is now often found offering training and support on our Party's technical systems, including direct mail production.

He is also Chair of Campaigns for London Region.

Caron Lyndsay - Scotland Rep

Caron is a former Treasurer and Campaigns and Candidates Convener of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. She is currently the Scottish Party’s representative on the Federal People Development Committee. As a member of Liberal Democrat Women, LGBT+ Lib Dems and LDCRE, she is particularly interested in increasing diversity at all levels of the party.

Caron is also Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice.

Greg Foster - Scotland Rep

Stephen Harte - Scotland Rep

Stephen joined the Scottish Liberal Party at university before the 1987 election and has been a member of the Scottish Liberal Democrats since it's merger.  

Serving on the Executive of the Scottish Lib Dems, he is also Vice-Chair of the Discipliniary Sub-Group which safeguards the independence and efficiency of the Party’s complaints system.

Stephen has been a long standing campaigner for LGBT+ rights and seeks to be an effective trans ally in these difficult times. 

He lives with his partner and cat in Edinburgh and works as a lawyer in the energy industry.

Jon Buree - Wales Rep

Jon was previously Chair of the Welsh Conference Committee in 2019 and takes up that post again in 2023. He has been a member of the Party and its predecessor for over 40 years.

A campaigner and activist from Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Jon was a member of Llanelli Town Council (1991-95).

He is a former Secretary of the Welsh Party National Executive Committee. During 2020-23, Jon served as Vice-Chair of the Welsh Board; the Welsh Rep on the Federal Conference Committee; and the Welsh Rep on the Federal People Development Committee.

Jon is currently retired after spending some years caring for family members.

William Powell - Wales Rep

A qualified Modern Languages teacher, William has represented his native Talgarth on Powys County Council since 2004; as well as serving on the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority 2004-11 and again since May 2022.  

He was a member of the Senedd for Mid & West Wales (2011-16); served as Chair of the Petitions Committee and as a Member of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. 

President of the Welsh Liberal Democrats (2017- 20), William was subsequently elected as Welsh representative on the Federal Board (2020-22) and as a Welsh member of the Federal Council in the Autumn of 2022.

William has a strong interest in rural policy, sustainability and transport. He has been a board member of several organisations in the voluntary sector, including the Bevan Foundation and the Lloyd George Society.

Richard Foord MP - Parliamentary Rep (Commons)

Richard is the Member of Parliament for Tiverton & Honiton and the Liberal Democrats' Spokesperson for Defence. He lives in Uffculme with his wife and family, and grew up in the south west. 

Serving in the army for a decade, he achieved the rank of Major. Richard received three campaign medals for service in Iraq and the Balkans; and was a UN peacekeeper in Kosovo.

Before being elected, Richard worked for a leading university. He volunteers his time with scout groups in Willand and Cullompton. He has raised thousand of pounds for charities, including running the London Marathon for the Royal British Legion.

Lord Paul Strasburger - Parliamentary Rep (Lords)

Lord Strasburger, who has been a Peer since 2011, is a former entrepreneur and Chair of Big Brother Watch.  

In Parliament, Paul is a member of the Joint Committee of the National Security Strategy as well as being part of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Coronavirus and Ticketing Abuse respectively.  

He has a particular focus on Privacy & Freedom of Speech; Security and Culture (including restoring cultural tours in Europe).

Paul is based in the Liberal Democrat oasis of Bath.

Lord Timothy Clement-Jones - Parliamentary Rep (Lords)

Lord Clement-Jones was made CBE for political services in 1988 and life peer ten years later. 

He is the Liberal Democrat House of Lords spokesperson for Digital.  Tim is the former Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on AI (2017-18) and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI.  He is a founding member of the OECD Parliamentary Group on AI and a former member of the Council of Europe’s Ad-hoc Committee on AI. 

Tim is Chair of Trust Alliance Group (formerly Ombudsman Services), the not for profit, independent ombudsman providing dispute resolution for the communications, energy, and parking industries.  He is Chair of Council at Queen Mary University of London.  He is a Consultant on AI Policy and Regulation to global law firm, DLA Piper.

Lord Clement-Jones is also President of Ambitious about Autism, an autism education charity.  Further details about Tim can be found at: https://www.lordclementjones.org/

Archie McCann - Young Liberals Rep

Archie (he/him) is an Engineering student, and the Secretary of his University Young Liberals branch. He has worked (temporarily) as a gymnastics coach, in a pub kitchen, and in electronics engineering, but not all at the same time.

In a couple of years Archie hopes to be working in civil engineering, and as such has a specific interest in the built environment; alongside strong commitments to civil liberties, LGBT+ rights, and economic development.

He is also an owner of two cats, a karaoke fan, and an enthusiast of STV.

Huw James - Young Liberals Rep

Oliver Jones Lyon - Young Liberals Rep

FASC Chair - Dr David Radcliffe

Dave was a member of Birmingham City Council for 10 years, and was the first chair of the Council’s Audit Committee from 2006 to 2012. During this period, the Council turned around a finance department that was failing to return accounts to statutory deadlines and to a poor standard.

He has worked at the University of Birmingham for over 20 years, which includes a period of being secretary to the University’s Audit Committee. His current role involves providing assurance to university governors on use of data and statutory returns (an equivalent of a statement of internal controls).

Dave has been a Lib Dem member for 20+ years, during which he was a Councillor, and stood for Parliament a number of times.