Catherine Bearder
Election address:
Catherine has been politically active for over 30 years and has represented her local communities at Parish, District and County level. She was a parliamentary candidate for Banbury (1997) and Henley (2001) and elected to the European Parliament in 2009. She was re-elected to the Parliament twice and led the successful group of the Liberal Democrat group in 2019. During her 11 years as an MEP she was also elected as a Quaestor of the Parliament and sat in the President’s Bureau. Before coming into politics, Catherine was in management in the voluntary sector.
Her work in the parliament concentrated on protecting the environment, tackling human trafficking. She now sees it important that we maintain close links to the EU with the aim of rejoining it sometime in the future. However, these international issues will not be accomplished whilst we have a dysfunctional electoral system in the UK where one inward and isolationist party dominates.
This is why, when her term of office came to a close with Brexit in 2020, she was keen to put her energies into changing the way the UK is governed. She was first elected to the Council in 2020 and subsequently onto the Management Board of Unlock Democracy.
Until the UK has a form of PR, reformed Houses of Commons and Lords and a written Constitution to defend our liberties, this country will never perform as an open and free democracy where every voter has their interests protected, where their votes count FOR their elected representatives, not where votes are cast against who they don't want.
Catherine is keen that UD works to build a really vocal and effective democratic movement and works with other organisations to further our aims.
She says “Never has there been such a recognition that the current system of government is being manipulated and our rights eroded. The country is looking for alternatives and Unlock Democracy should be the voice they hear in this debate. I am keen to do what I can to help advance these reforms and to support UD in their aims. Please support me to support this great organisation.”
If you have questions for Catherine she can be contacted by email at catherine@bearder.eu