Sarah Ludford, Baroness Ludford
Sarah Ann Ludford, Baroness Ludford is a British-Irish Liberal Democrat politician and member of the House of Lords. She served as a Member of the European Parliament for London from 1999 until 2014.
Early life and education
Ludworth was born in the Blyth Rural District of East Suffolk to an English father and an Irish mother and grew up in Hampshire. On a scholarship, she attended the independent Portsmouth High School. She went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science, both from the London School of Economics. She subsequently qualified as a barrister, joining Gray's Inn in 1979.Political career
Ludford was created a life peer as Baroness Ludford, of Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington on 30 September 1997, after serving as a Councillor for the London Borough of Islington 1991–99. Having unsuccessfully fought London Central in 1989 [European Parliament election in the United Kingdom|1989] and 1994 European [Parliament election in the United Kingdom|1994], she was elected MEP for London at the 1999 [European Parliament election in the United Kingdom|European Parliament election in 1999] and returned in 2004 and 2009, before losing her seat in 2014.A 2008 rule change by the European Parliament, which disqualified MEPs from simultaneously serving as members of their national legislature, initially prevented Ludford from taking her seat in the House of Lords in the UK Parliament due to her re-election to the European Parliament in the 2009 election.
She remains a member of the Liberal Democrat groups Friends of Israel and Friends of Turkey.