Baroness Sarah Ludford - MEP for London

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP has been a Member of the European Parliament, representing London, since 1999. She started her career as a UK civil servant, spent 7 years working for the European Commission and 5 years in the City as a European affairs adviser, and was an Islington councillor for 8 years in the 1990s. She was appointed to the House of Lords in 1997. An LSE graduate in international history, she also has a master's degree in European Studies and is qualified as a barrister.

Sarah Ludford is European justice & human rights spokeswoman for the UK Liberal Democrats. A senior member of the European Parliament civil liberties, justice & home affairs committee, She has taken a leading role in formulation of EU cooperation measures on crime, terrorism and data exchange but also on data protection and civil liberties safeguards, and plays a strong part in developing laws on biometric visas, border security, immigration and asylum.

Sarah has been active on measures to combat human trafficking and sexual crime and to aid the search for missing children. She is also in the forefront of action on equality as vice-chair of the European Parliament's anti-racism and diversity intergroup, and an active member of the gay & lesbian intergroup. She is a vocal campaigner against anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and homophobic hate crime, while upholding the right to free speech. Sarah is on the council of Liberty and Justice, and a patron of Fair Trials international.

Sarah is also vice-chair of the European Parliament human rights sub-committee and member of the foreign affairs committee. She has been the European Parliament's rapporteur on Guantanamo Bay and was a founder and vice-chair of the parliament?s investigation into European governments? collusion in CIA ?torture flights? and secret prisons. She is a member of the delegation to the United States, takes a strong interest in the Balkans, Turkey, Cyprus and the Middle East, and is a member of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel.

Sarah campaigns strongly for a cleaner environment in London, respecting EU pollution laws. The petition she ran on stopping raw sewage discharge into the River Thames was influential in the decision to build a tunnel to divert it to treatment. She is active in pushing for better air quality, and in opposing the proposed Heathrow third runway which would create more air and noise pollution, harm the fight against climate change and damage Londoners' quality of life. She takes a strong interest in health policy and research on diabetes.