Federal People and Development Committee

Claire Hudson - Chair

Claire joined the Party in early 2001, just in time to be involved in her first General Election. Having been bitten by the campaigning bug she went on to work for David Heath MP, serving as his agent & campaign manager in 2005 and 2010.

She was a District Councillor from 2003-19 and during that time, served on the board of ALDC, including as Chair; and was elected to the Lib Dem LGA group.

Outside of politics Claire works in education governance and volunteers as the Chair of her local Citizens Advice board; as a multi academy trust trustee; and the Chair of Governors of two federated secondary schools. 

Ellie Hudspith - Vice-Chair

Ellie has been a Party member for over a decade, starting out as a teenager knocking on doors in St Albans, before interning in an MP's office during her time at university in Yorkshire. This was followed by an internship with ALDC in Manchester. 

She has also been a local councillor in St Albans, and was Daisy Cooper's election agent in 2019.

Outside of the Party, Ellie works in Campaigns & Communications for a leading consumer organisation. 

Christopher Hudson

Chris has been a member since 2015, held several Local Party positions including Treasurer, Chair and Agent, and been a member of the London Region Executive. As Chair in Southwark, he held the first ‘Southwark Session’, which aimed to share skills and training with less well established neighbouring Local Parties. 

Chris co-founded the ‘Liberal Pitch’ which is an interactive member initiative to make policy making more inclusive and fun. He is also author of Winning Here, Winning There: A Guidebook for Local Liberal Democrats.  

Rob Verity

Lynn Cunningham

Inspired by Daisy Cooper’s positive campaigning in St Albans, Lynn joined the local party in 2018, was quickly elected Secretary and became a committed activist during the 2019 local and European elections. Lynn went on to become Chief of Staff for one of our MEPs and then also was a core member of Daisy’s winning GE2019 election team. Subsequently Lynn served as Chair of the local party and was elected as a district councillor in 2022, now holding a Lead Councillor role with Vice Chair responsibility for Public Realm.

During her professional career Lynn served as HR Director in 3 global businesses, with a particular passion for Learning & Development. She has held exec and non-exec roles in local charities, and also volunteers with Carers in Hertfordshire as a Carer Trainer. Lynn is also an experienced Teacher of English as a Second Language, having worked overseas for several years, and more recently, supporting Ukrainian refugees in St Albans.

Candy Piercy - Campaign for Gender Balance

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.

Chris French - Racial Diversity Campaign

Chris French is Chair of the Racial Diversity Campaign. He is a campaigner for LGBTQ+ rights, setting up a forum in his home borough of Lambeth, London which has the largest LGBTQ+ population in London and second largest in the UK. After working on large public and private sector transformation projects at PwC, he set up his own social enterprise consultancy and works with the NHS, local authorities and the third sector in the area of health inequality.

He ran for local council in Lambeth in 2022, is the PPC for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, the Greater London Authority Constituency Candidate for Lambeth and Southwark, and was on the shortlist to be the 2024 London mayoral candidate. He is using his lived, professional and political experience to help other diverse candidates through the application process to become target seat candidates.

LDCRE Reps

Dr. Mohsin Khan (left)

Mohsin works in forensic psychiatry as an NHS doctor working in London. He has previously worked in Oxford and Buckinghamshire, and has experience in the Department of Health, the House of Commons, and at a major health think tank. As a doctor, he has a strong belief in the NHS as a public service, and the rights for all to have access to quality healthcare.

Vikas Aggarwal (right)

Vikas was born in Kent, but spent all of his time in London besides a few years in Nottingham, Bristol, and a year in the British Embassy in Iran. He worked for 12 years in the civil service across foreign, defence, business and trade policy. He now works just off Trafalgar Square helping developing and advancing economies with socio-economic issues like financial literacy and inclusion. He is part of the Westminster and City of London executive committee.

Julie Adnams Hatch - LDDA

Julie is the Chair of the Liberal Democrat Disability Association (LDDA). Julie has a disability herself, uses a wheelchair and has an assistance dog.

She understands the need to support anyone with a disability in all stages of their career to develop confidence, as well as clarity.

Helen Cross - LDW

Helen is the Chair of the Liberal Democrat Women and has lived in Chiswick since 2001. She is a businesswoman who has built a successful career in technology and the digital economy, specialising in robotics and AI.

Helen started out in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, born in her local NHS hospital, going through the comprehensive school system and then to university. She wants everybody to have the opportunity to achieve the life they want. Growing up as a mixed race child gave Helen a real insight into being a minority within a community and the importance of defending all minorities.

Charley Hasted - LGBT+ Lib Dems Chair

Charley is the Chair of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats as well as an NHS emergency services worker and unpaid carer from Lambeth. They hold a number of positions in non-profit organisations, mainly based on LGBT+ and Disability activism.

They got into politics in 2004/5 after becoming Chair of Greenwich Young People's Council, finally joining the Party in 2010, whilst studying for a degree in Human Rights Law. Charley spent most of the coalition being visibly LibDem in the NUS (which was an experience). This along with their background as youth worker and teaching assistant, gave them a keen interest in youth empowerment and education. Their other interests include disability issues (transport and inclusive green policy), health and human rights.

Charley has since stood in council and parliamentary elections. They were the first Trans masculine person to stand for local election in the UK; the first Trans PPC in Wales in 2017; and as a 2021 GLA List candidate, the first non-binary person to run for the GLA.

In their free time Charley can usually be found reading, gaming, singing and racking up a lengthy list of accidental electoral firsts. You can find them on Twitter @CharleyHasted.

Janey Little - Young Liberals Chair

Janey joined the Liberal Democrats in 2019 and serves as the Chair of the Young Liberals, having previously been Policy Officer.

Originally from North Somerset, she is currently studying Politics, Philosophy & Economics at the University of Oxford.

Alongside her work in the Young Liberals, Janey is on the executive of Lib Dem Women.

Party President - Dr. Mark Pack

Mark is the Party's President and an author with books including: 101 Ways To Win An Election and Bad News: what the headlines don’t tell us.

He worked for the Liberal Democrats 2000-2009, including a period as Head of Innovations. In 2015, he wrote with David Howarth a seminal pamphlet on the Party’s strategy: The 20% Strategy: building a core vote for the Liberal Democrats.

Outside the Liberal Democrats, Mark has worked in IT in both the public and private sectors and between 2009 and 2019 was a Communications & Crisis Consultant. He's also been a Visiting Lecturer at City University in the Journalism Department.

To contact Mark or to invite him to a Liberal Democrat event, please see here.

Visit Mark's Twitter account.

Party Vice-President - Amna Ahmad

The Vice-President of the Federal Party is responsible for working with ethnic minority communities.

Amna was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and grew up on a council estate in London where she experienced the foster care system.

She has a track record as a candidate for the Party, including a 2017 Westminster target seat campaign, and was our Shadow Refugee Minister that year. 

Amna is a regular contributor to BBC Asian Network and has appeared in The Guardian, the Evening Standard, ITV News, and the BBC, amongst others.

Professionally, she is a campaigner working in healthcare policy. 

Pete Dollimore - English Party Rep

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 Lindsay - Scottish Party 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.

Andrew Joyce - Welsh Party Rep