Wera Hobhouse has been the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Bath since 2017.
Some highlights of Wera’s parliamentary career are:
Early life
Wera was born in Hanover, Germany. She first got involved in political campaigning when a disused salt mine near her home town was earmarked as a permanent nuclear waste storage facility.
She met her husband, William, in Berlin. They married in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down.
They moved to the UK in 1990 and their four children were born in Liverpool.
Local Councillor
In 1999 they moved to Rochdale and Wera got involved in politics as a councillor for the Norden ward, serving ten years from 2004 to 2014. During this time she led the campaign to save the local Norden library from being sold and demolished. The building was bought instead by the Norden Community Trust which continues to provide local services from the building.
They moved to the Bath area in 2014 and Wera stood against Jacob Rees-Mogg in the 2015 General Election.
2015 – 2017
Wera was a lead member of the Bath ‘Stronger In’ campaign. After the 2016 referendum, she co-founded Bath for Europe to highlight the benefits of our EU membership and the crucial role it has played in Britain’s peace and prosperity. Wera was selected to stand in the 2017 snap General Election and defeated the Conservative Ben Howlett by 5,694 votes.
2017 – 2019
Wera’s first job as MP was to ensure that her constituents could contact her. She and her team work to resolve problems whenever possible and raise issues in Parliament that are first brought to her by Bath residents.
As part of a small group of Liberal Democrat MPs, Wera was a member of the Brexit Select Committee and was the party’s spokesperson for Housing and Local Government. She developed the policy to build large numbers of new social homes. She then moved to be the spokesperson on Climate and Net Zero which had no department in government at the time. She helped develop her party’s climate policy which was approved in September 2019.
On 6th March 2018, Wera presented her Bill to criminalise Upskirting. The bill was finally passed as a government Bill after controversy and support from the then Prime Minister Theresa May.
2019 – 2024
In the 2019 General Election, Wera was re-elected as MP for Bath with a majority of 12,322 votes. Immediately following the election she voted against the Bill to leave the European Union. During this Parliament Wera was the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Women and Equalities, Energy, Climate and Net Zero, as well as the party’s Shadow Leader of the House. She was also a member of the Restoration and Renewal Board for the Palace of Westminster.
In 2022 Wera came 15th in the Private Members’ Bill ballot. She used this opportunity to introduce a piece of legislation to address the obligations of employers to proactively prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The Bill passed through the House of Commons but attempts were made in the House of Lords to scupper the Bill. Wera accepted the amendments put down by opponents in the House of Lords and piloted the Bill through the House of Commons when it returned there with the support of the government whips. The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 came into effect on 26th October 2024.
2024 Parliament
In the 2024 General Election, Wera was re-elected as MP for Bath with a majority of 11,218 votes. The boundaries of the constituency had widened to include the Bathavon North ward since the previous election, and now include the villages of Bathampton, Bathford, Batheaston, Charlcombe and Kelston.
In 2025 Wera was appointed to the Panel of Chairs, a group of MPs that chair Public Bill committees, Westminster Hall debates, and other general committees.
On 10th April 2025 Wera was refused entry to Hong Kong as she and her husband arrived on a private visit to see their three month old grandson for the first time.