25 Facts About Sarah Teather

Sarah Louise Teather was born on 1 June 1974 and is the Director of Jesuit Refugee Service UK and a former British Member of Parliament and Minister.

Sarah Teather won by a small margin, and, after the election, she served as Minister of State in the Department for Education in the coalition government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats until she returned to the backbenches on 4 September 2012.

Sarah Teather initially embarked on a PhD at University College London, but left the course at the end of her first year.

Sarah Teather went on to work as a policy adviser for a number of prominent groups including the Royal Society and the charity Macmillan Cancer Relief.

Sarah Teather first contested an election on 7 June 2001 in the seat of Finchley and Golders Green.

Sarah Teather was then appointed by the council to serve as a school governor at Ashmount Primary School.

In 2003 Sarah Teather was selected as the party's candidate in the Brent East by-election, which was called after the death of the Labour MP Paul Daisley.

At 29, Sarah Teather became the youngest Member of Parliament, known as Baby of the House.

Sarah Teather successfully defended her seat in the 2005 general election, increasing her majority to over 2,700.

Sarah Teather established the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Guantanamo Bay in March 2007, and used the group to campaign against the detention without charge of Jamil el-Banna, a constituent.

Sarah Teather visited Washington twice to lobby on his behalf, and worked closely on the case with the anti-death penalty charity, Reprieve and Amnesty International.

In parliament Sarah Teather became one of the highest-profile Liberal Democrat MPs.

Sarah Teather supported Sir Menzies Campbell in the subsequent leadership election.

Sarah Teather was promoted again to Education spokesperson following Sir Menzies Campbell's election as leader on 2 March 2006.

In 2007 Sarah Teather became Business spokesperson, followed by becoming Housing spokesperson from 2008.

Sarah Teather then failed to turn up to a number of key votes on the Welfare Reform Act despite there being a three-line whip, which resulted in a number of Conservative backbench MPs publicly calling for her to be sacked.

On 6 February 2012 Sarah Teather was part of a ministerial working group together with Tim Loughton and justice minister Jonathan Djanogly that was asked to come up with proposals within two months on how the law should be changed regarding how to amend the Children Act of 1989.

Sarah Teather then voted against the coalition for the first time, on a deferred division on the final regulations needed to put the Benefit Cap in place.

In late 2012, Sarah Teather chaired a Parliamentary inquiry into asylum support for children and young people, which was supported by The Children's Society.

In February 2013, Sarah Teather voted against the Marriage Bill at its second reading.

Sarah Teather later expressed regret for this vote, writing that she has since "thanked God that I was then in an irrelevant minority".

On 7 September 2013, Sarah Teather released a statement through her website to announce she would not contest the 2015 general election, saying her decision was "to do with some aspects of government policy", adding that she "no longer feels that Nick Clegg's party fights sufficiently for social justice and liberal values on immigration".

The inquiry panel, chaired by Sarah Teather, found that "the UK uses detention disproportionately and inappropriately" and recommended that a time limit of 28 days be introduced as the maximum length of time an individual can be held in an immigration removal centre.

Sarah Teather stood down as the MP for Brent Central at the 2015 general election and joined the International Advocacy team of the Jesuit Refugee Service in June 2015.

On 3 December 2015, it was announced that Sarah Teather had been appointed as the country director of JRS UK.