Sal Brinton

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Brinton
President of the Liberal Democrats
Assumed office
1 January 2015
Leader Nick Clegg
Tim Farron
Sir Vince Cable
Preceded by Tim Farron
Personal details
Born Sarah Virginia Brinton
(1955-04-01) 1 April 1955
London, England, UK
Political party Liberal Democrats
Alma mater Central School of Speech and
Drama
Churchill College, Cambridge

Sarah Virginia Brinton, Baroness Brinton[1] (born 1 April 1955), known popularly as Sal Brinton, is the President of the UK Liberal Democrats. In November 2010 she was nominated to the House of Lords,[2] taking her place on 10 February 2011[3] as Baroness Brinton, of Kenardington in the County of Kent.

Education and honours

Brinton is the daughter of former Conservative MP Tim Brinton,[4] and the cousin of Mary Stocks, Baroness Stocks.

Brinton was educated at Benenden School and studied stage management at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She subsequently completed a degree in English literature from Churchill College, Cambridge in 1981.[5][6]

In 2003, Brinton was awarded an honorary PhD for her contribution to education, skills and learning by Anglia Ruskin University.[7] In November 2013, she was made a Fellow of Birkbeck, University of London.[8] She is Patron of Christian Blind Mission UK, Trustee of the United Kingdom Committee of UNICEF, a Trustee of the Ufi Charitable Trust, and a Director of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd.[9]

Career

Beginning her career in the mid 1970s at the BBC as a television floor manager, working on programmes including Playschool, Grandstand and Doctor Who, Brinton became a Cambridgeshire County Councillor in 1993 and contested the parliamentary seat of South East Cambridgeshire at the 1997 and 2001 general elections.

Baroness Brinton was Bursar of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, from 1992 to 1997,[10] and Selwyn College, Cambridge, from 1997 to 2002.[11] In 1997 she won the East Anglian entrepreneurial businesswoman of the year award. She was also founder member of the Board of the East of England Development Agency from December 1998 to December 2004 (Deputy Chair from 2001 to 2004).

From 1999 to 2004, Baroness Brinton chaired the Cambridgeshire Learning and Skills Council.[12] She contested the Watford constituency at the 2005 and 2010 General Elections coming second to Labour and the Conservatives respectively. She is a non-executive director of the Ufi Charitable Trust, a charity giving grants in the vocational educational technology sector.[13]

Baroness Brinton is a member of the Liberal Democrat Federal Policy Committee and Vice Chair of the Federal Conference Committee.[14] She also chairs the Liberal Democrat Diversity Engagement Group and has a particular interest in increasing the number of women, black, Asian, and minority ethnic MPs.[15] Baroness Brinton was a member of the All Party Stalking Inquiry of 2011.[16]

In 2014, Baroness Brinton was elected as the President of the Liberal Democrats, defeating Daisy Cooper and Liz Lynne, and took up her position on 1 January 2015.[17]

References

Party political offices
Preceded by
Tim Farron		 President of the Liberal Democrats
2015–present 		Incumbent
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