Skip to main content

The UK's Top 100 Most influential Liberals and Liberal Democrats

Three years ago I drafted a personal and probably slightly eccentric list of the most influential liberal and Liberal Democrat figures in the UK.

How the political world has changed since then! At that point Ming Campbell was still the leader (albeit that he had already announced his resignation). The economic crisis was but a whisper away, though the scale of it was still unclear. The prospect of Liberal Democrat ministers at Westminster seemed gloomy indeed.

Alas some of the figures I named have died, others have forsworn their previously liberal allegiance. Yet, new Liberal Democrats can still be found- the list is therefore quite a bit different than it was three years ago. The order is rather random too...

HM The Queen
Nick Clegg MP- Deputy Prime Minister
Vince Cable MP- Business Secretary and best selling author
Danny Alexander MP- Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Chris Huhne- Energy & Environment Secretary
Graham Watson- Leader of the European Liberals, ALDE
Amartya Sen- Winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics
Simon Hughes MP- Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Chris Fox, Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats
Mike Moore- Secretary of State for Scotland
David Laws MP
Jeremy Browne MP- Minister of State at the Foreign Office
Baroness (Ros) Scott- President of the Liberal Democrats
Nick Harvey- Minister of State at the MoD
Lord (Tom) McNally - Minister of State and Department of Justice
Alistair Carmichael MP- Deputy Chief Whip
Norman Lamb MP- Chief Advisor to Nick Clegg
Professor Steve Webb MP- Minister of State at the Department of Work & Pensions
Sarah Teather MP- Minister of State at the Department of Education
Lynne Featherstone MP- PuSS- Home Office
Paul Burstow MP- Minister of State at the Department of Health
Edward Davey MP- PuSS Department of Business
Norman Baker MP- PuSS Department of Transport
Andrew Stunnell MP- PuSS Department of Communities & Local Government
Lord (Paddy) Ashdown- former leader
Fiona Hall - Leader UK Lib Dem MEPs
Lord (David) Steel- former leader
David Heath MP - Deputy Leader of the House of Commons
Lord (Jim) Wallace - Advocate General for Scotland
Tavish Scott MSP- Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats
Adair Turner- former head of the CBI
Edward Lucas- International Editor, The Economist
Kirsty Williams AM- Leader Welsh Liberal Democrats
Jo Swinson MP- Deputy Leader Scottish Liberal Democrats
Lord (Alex) Carlile- Government Legal Advisor
Lord (Iain) Vallance- Former Chairman BT
Baroness (Shirley) Williams
Alison Suttie- Leaders Office
Colin Firth- Actor
Daniel Radcliffe- Actor
Sandi Toksvig- wit and broadcaster
Lord (Tim) Clement Jones- Party Treasurer
Lord (Tim) Razzall- Peers Representative Federal Executive
Lord Avebury- Veteran Campaigner
Lady (Julia) Neuberger- Progressive Rabbi
Sir Menzies Campbell QC MP- former leader
Charles Kennedy MP- former leader
Alan Beith MP- Longest serving MP
Malcolm Bruce- Chairman of International Development Select Committee
Roger Williams MP
Olly Grender- media guru
Lord (Navnit) Dholakia- past President
Jonny Oates- campaigns director
Sam Brittan- Economist
Mike Smithson- Political Betting Blogmaster
Craig Harrow- Convenor Scottish Party
Jonathan Calder- Liberal Blogfather
Richard Reeves- former head of Demos
Duncan Brack- Chatham House and Party Veteran
Janet Street-Porter
Rosie Boycott- former editor The Independent
Tim Farron MP- Candidate for President of the Party
Philippe Legrain- globalisation guru
Susan Kramer- former MP and likely candidate for London Mayor
Dee Doocey AM- London guru
Iain Smith MSP- former Scottish Minister
Lord (David) Shutt- Fundraiser and Lords whip
Ross Finnie MSP
Mike Rumbles MSP
Lord (Tony) Greaves
Baroness (Sarah) Ludford MEP
Lord (Dominic) Addington
Julian Huppert MP- Scientist
Richard Kemp- LGA Head
Cllr. Jenny Dawe- Leader City of Edinburgh
Dorothy Thornhill- Long serving elected Mayor of Watford
Cllr. David Faulkner- Leader City of Newcastle-on-Tyne
Cllr. Barbara Janke- Leader City of Bristol
Cllr. Carl Minns- Leader City of Hull
Cllr Derek Osborne- Leader LB Kingston on Thames
Cllr. John Stewart- Leader City of Aberdeen
Cllr. Gerald Vernon-Jackson- Leader City of Portsmouth
Cllr Sian Reid- Leader City of Cambridge
Cllr. Jeff Reid- Leader of Northumberland County Council
Duncan Borrowman- Long serving member Federal Executive
Lord (David) Aliiance- Businessman
Martin Wolf- Journalist and economic Liberal
Lord Lester- Lawyer
Baroness (Kishawer) Faulkner
Qassim Afzal- Long serving member Federal Executive and PPC
Richard Grayson- Academic and PPC
Mark Pack- Blogger
Don Foster MP
Neil Fletcher- Lib Dem rep on COSLA
Paul Marshall- Investor and Centre Forum Sponsor
Alex Cole-Hamilton- Scottish Activist
Eamonn Butler- CEO The Adam Smith Institute
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
Stephen Tall- Blogger


Comments

Anonymous said…
How do you justify including the Queen?
Anonymous said…
Shirley Williams rightly should rank high on any list of influentials.
UK investors said…
Really useful blog.Good work keeping this updated! Thanks a lot!
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said…
I am very impress on your information , Its a really very impressive blog. I really got some another very nice information , so thanks for sharing these tips, UK investment.

Popular posts from this blog

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop

Media misdirection

In the small print of the UK budget we find that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the British Finance Minister) has allocated a further 15 billion Pounds to the funding for the UK track and trace system. This means that the cost of the UK´s track and trace system is now 37 billion Pounds.  That is approximately €43 billion or US$51 billion, which is to say that it is amount of money greater than the national GDP of over 110 countries, or if you prefer, it is roughly the same number as the combined GDP of the 34 smallest economies of the planet.  As at December 2020, 70% of the contracts for the track and trace system were awarded by the Conservative government without a competitive tender being made . The program is overseen by Dido Harding , who is not only a Conservative Life Peer, but the wife of a Conservative MP, John Penrose, and a contemporary of David Cameron and Boris Johnson at Oxford. Many of these untendered contracts have been given to companies that seem to have no notewo

Bournemouth absence

Although I had hoped to get down to the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth this year, simple pressure of work has now made that impossible. I must admit to great disappointment. The last conference before the General Election was always likely to show a few fireworks, and indeed the conference has attracted more headlines than any other over the past three years. Some of these headlines show a significant change of course in terms of economic policy. Scepticism about the size of government expenditure has given way to concern and now it is clear that reducing government expenditure will need to be the most urgent priority of the next government. So far it has been the Liberal Democrats that have made the running, and although the Conservatives are now belatedly recognising that cuts will be required they continue to fail to provide even the slightest detail as to what they think should guide their decisions in this area. This political cowardice means that we are expected to ch