Wera Benedicta Hobhouse (née von Reden; 8 February 1960) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. She is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath, having been elected at the 2017 general election by a majority of 5,694.
Video Wera Hobhouse
Early life and career
Early life
Hobhouse was born in Hanover, Germany. She studied History and Fine Art at the University of Münster. She came to Britain in 1990 having met and married her English husband, William Hobhouse. From 1990 they lived in Liverpool, where Hobhouse opened an art gallery. They moved to Rochdale in 1999. Prior to her political career, she was a teacher.
Councillor
Hobhouse was first elected in 2004 as a Conservative councillor for the ward of Norden on Rochdale Council, Greater Manchester. At the same election, her husband was elected as a Conservative councillor for the ward of Bamford, also in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale.
Hobhouse's political career in Rochdale was defined by the Spodden Valley asbestos controversy; this was the proposed development of 650 homes on an asbestos-contaminated site. Hobhouse and her husband opposed the proposals, leading them to switch to the Liberal Democrats in 2005. They were criticised at the time for not triggering by-elections to seek fresh mandates as Liberal Democrat councillors. The development, which included a nursery, was finally blocked seven years later in 2011.
Hobhouse was reelected in 2006 and 2010 for the Liberal Democrats in Norden; her husband lost the 2010 election in Bamford. The Liberal Democrats assumed majority control of Rochdale Council in 2007; Hobhouse served as the Cabinet Member for the Environment between 2006 and 2009 and chaired the Health Scrutiny committee from 2009 to 2010. After the Liberal Democrats lost majority control of the council in 2010, and following disastrous local election results, Hobhouse was elected as the leader of the much-reduced Liberal Democrat group on Rochdale Council in May 2011. In July 2011, Hobhouse was involved in a heated exchange at a full council meeting concerning arts funding, for which she later apologised.
In 2014, Hobhouse retired as a councillor for Norden and moved to Bath with her husband.
Parliament
Hobhouse unsuccessfully contested the constituencies of Heywood and Middleton in 2010 and North East Somerset in 2015. She stood for election to the Bath and North East Somerset Council for the Peasedown ward in the 2015 local election.
Shortly before the 2017 general election, Hobhouse was selected to stand for parliament in the former Liberal Democrat seat of Bath when the prospective candidate stood down. She was one of 184 women candidates put forward by the Liberal Democrats. Hobhouse, who had previously campaigned with Bath for Europe, stood on a pro-European platform which also emphasised housing, education and pollution concerns, as well as opposition to the incumbent Conservative MP Ben Howlett's plans to link the A46 and A36 roads together. Her party emphasised the need for Labour supporters to vote tactically for Hobhouse to defeat the Conservatives. She gained the seat with a majority of 5,694 votes and a 17.6% increase in the Liberal Democrat vote share - the second-highest vote share increase for the party nationally - helped by a 9.7% fall in the Green Party vote.
On 6 March 2018, Hobhouse presented a Private Members' Bill to amend the Sexual Offences Act 2003; her bill would outlaw acts of voyeurism, especially upskirting, which are not currently explicitly covered by UK law. Justice Secretary David Gauke signalled that the government would support Hobhouse's bill. The bill was not debated at its presentation in the House of Commons; its second reading in the Commons is scheduled for 15 June 2018.
Hobhouse is a member of the governing council of the Electoral Reform Society.
Maps Wera Hobhouse
Personal life
Wera Hobhouse has been married to William Hobhouse since 1990. They both cite the fall of the Berlin Wall, which they travelled to witness in November 1989, as a pivotal moment in their lives. They have four grown-up children, two sons and two daughters, holding British and German citizenship, two of whom are studying in London. Wera Hobhouse naturalised as a British citizen in 2007 in order to stand for Parliament.
William Hobhouse was a Liberal Democrat councillor for the Bamford ward of Rochdale from 2005 to 2010 (having also been elected as a Conservative in 2004) and he owns and runs Rochdale-based Composite Textiles, a company that provides bonding, priming and adhesion solutions to the textile and rubber industries. He stood for parliament in the 1992 general election as the Conservative candidate for Manchester Blackley.
References
External links
- Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 2010-present
- Voting record at Public Whip
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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