24 Facts About Wera Hobhouse

Wera Benedicta Hobhouse is a British-German Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Bath since 2017.

Wera Hobhouse von Reden was born on 8 February 1960 in Hanover.

Wera Hobhouse studied history and fine art at the University of Munster and then studied art for two years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Wera Hobhouse then moved back to Germany, completing a master's degree in history and fine art at the Free University of Berlin.

Wera Hobhouse married William Hobhouse in 1989 and moved to England the following year.

Wera Hobhouse was first elected in 2004 as a Conservative councillor for the ward of Norden on Rochdale Council, Greater Manchester.

Wera Hobhouse was re-elected in 2006 and 2010 for the Liberal Democrats in Norden.

The Liberal Democrats assumed majority control of Rochdale Council in 2007; Wera Hobhouse served as the cabinet member for the environment between 2006 and 2009 and chaired the health scrutiny committee from 2009 to 2010.

In July 2011, Wera Hobhouse accused a council officer of failing to act impartially but later apologised after the council officer began legal action for defamation.

In 2017, Wera Hobhouse was selected as the Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Bath.

Wera Hobhouse stood on a pro-European platform which emphasised housing, education, congestion and pollution concerns, as well as opposition to the incumbent Conservative MP's plans to link the A46 and A36 roads together.

Wera Hobhouse's party emphasised the need for Labour supporters to vote tactically for Hobhouse to defeat the Conservatives.

Wera Hobhouse made her maiden speech on 29 June 2017, and sat on the Committee on Exiting the European Union.

At its second reading in the Commons on 15 June 2018, Conservative MP Christopher Chope objected to Wera Hobhouse's bill, preventing its passage through the Commons.

Wera Hobhouse acknowledged her party's limited resources following its electoral collapse at the 2015 general election, and affirmed that she was happy with Vince Cable as the party's leader.

Wera Hobhouse urged the party to do more to increase its diversity.

In February 2019, Wera Hobhouse was made the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the environment and climate change.

In February 2020, Wera Hobhouse announced that she would stand in the 2020 Liberal Democrats leadership election, before withdrawing in June and endorsing Layla Moran.

Wera Hobhouse is a former member of the governing council of the Electoral Reform Society.

Wera Hobhouse supported abortion reform in Northern Ireland, and has supported a campaign to improve the treatment of eating disorders, including by leading a parliamentary debate on destigmatising them.

In May 2021, alongside celebrities and other public figures, Wera Hobhouse was a signatory to an open letter from Stylist magazine which called on the government to address what it described as an "epidemic of male violence" by funding an "ongoing, high-profile, expert-informed awareness campaign on men's violence against women and girls".

Wera Hobhouse is a member of the Energy Security and Net Zero Select Committee.

Wera Hobhouse has been married to the businessman William Wera Hobhouse since 1989.

Wera Hobhouse cites Barack Obama and William Wilberforce as her political idols.