Sarah Teather

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Sarah Teather
Sarah Teather

Sarah Louise Teather (born 1 June 1974, London) is a British politician who is the Member of Parliament for Brent East. She was first elected on 18 September 2003 in the Brent East by-election and re-elected on 5 May 2005 in the 2005 general election.

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[edit] Biography

Educated at St John's College, Cambridge University, she gained a degree in Natural Sciences, specialising in pharmacology. It was while at Cambridge she became interested in politics and joined the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats, of which she became Treasurer, and became involved with LDYS in 1993. She went on to work as a policy advisor for a number of prominent groups including the Royal Society and the charity Macmillan Cancer Relief.

[edit] Political Career

She first contested an election in 2001 in the seat of Finchley and Golders Green, increasing the Lib Dem vote by 0.8% but still coming a distant third. In 2002, she became a councillor in the London Borough of Islington. In 2003 she was the party's candidate in the Brent Eastby-election, caused by the death of the Labour MP Paul Daisley from cancer. The 2003 Brent East by-election was set against the Iraq War - a war which was especially unpopular with the large Muslim electorate. The Liberal Democrats, a party which often fares well in by-elections, came from third place behind Labour and the Conservatives, with a 39.12% share of the total and 1,118 more than Labour's Robert Evans. Teather thus became the youngest member of the House, informally known as the "Baby of the House". She also became the joint shortest MP (with Hazel Blears), standing just 4'10" (1.47 Metres) tall.

At the 2005 general election, Labour fielded an Asian female candidate, Yasmin Qureshi, who also took an anti-war stance. However, Teather retained her seat with 14,764 votes, 47.5% of the total and 2,712 more than Quereshi. Her informal title of "Baby of the House" was taken by a newly-elected MP, fellow Liberal Democrat, Jo Swinson.

Before the 2005 General Election Teather was her party's spokesperson on London. After the election she was promoted to serve as the Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Community and Local Government. She was promoted again to Education Spokesman [1] following Menzies Campbell's election as leader in early 2006.

Teather lives in her constituency in Willesden Green and refuses to claim her second home allowance [2]. On 31 August 2006 she announced her intention to stand for the new Brent Central constituency at the next General Election.[3]

Following the resignation of Charles Kennedy, Teather supported Menzies Campbell in his successful leadership election campaign[4] [5].

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[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Paul Daisley		 Member of Parliament for Brent East
2003 – present		 Incumbent
Preceded by
David Lammy		 Baby of the House
2003–2005		 Succeeded by
Jo Swinson
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