Catherine Bearder

Who is Catherine Bearder?

Catherine Zena Bearder is a Liberal Democrat politician and MEP for South East England.

She was educated at the independent St Christopher School, Letchworth.

She was the second placed Liberal Democrat candidate for the European Parliament in the South East region of England. Replacing Emma Nicholson MEP, she was placed behind Sharon Bowles MEP on the party list for the 2009 European elections. Bearder was elected to the European Parliament on 4 June 2009, and took her seat on 14 July. In 2014 she was re-elected, as the sole British Liberal Democrat MEP.

A former Lib Dem councillor in Cherwell and on Oxfordshire County Council, twice European candidate and parliamentary candidate for Banbury in 1997 and Henley in 2001, Catherine has been an active Liberal Democrat for many years. She is also vice-chair of the Lib Dem European Group and vice-president of the Green Liberal Democrats.

She is married to Professor Simon Bearder, a zoologist at Oxford Brookes University. The couple have three sons, Timothy, Ian and Peter.