Sarah Wollaston

Sarah Wollaston (born 17 February 1962) is a British former Liberal Democrat politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Totnes from 2010 to 2019.

First elected for the Conservative Party, she later served as a Change UK and Liberal Democrat MP.

Wollaston was born in February 1962 in Woking, Surrey, into a military family.

Her family moved frequently during her early years as her father – a supplies and catering officer in the Royal Air Force, formerly a diver and bomb disposal specialist in the Royal Navy – was posted around the world, including Hong Kong and Malta.

Wollaston was educated at service and civilian primary schools, later attending a girls' grammar school in Watford, where she was Head Girl in 1979–1980.

Whilst at secondary school, Wollaston took on a range of part-time jobs, including a Saturday job at her local branch of John Lewis.

She left sixth form with high grades in science subjects at A-level, which she needed to study Medicine at university.

In 1980, Wollaston entered Guy's Hospital Medical School in London as a medical student.

She took an intercalated degree in pathology in the third year of her undergraduate career, gaining a Bachelor of Science degree in the subject.

While at Guy's, she met her future husband, Adrian.

Alongside her studies, she took a part-time role as a healthcare assistant at the hospital to supplement her student grant.

She qualified in 1986 and worked as a junior hospital doctor and then as a general practitioner (GP).

After more than 20 years in clinical practice, she ran for political office.

She was selected as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Totnes through an open primary; during the campaign, she emphasised that she was not a career politician and had a professional career.

Wollaston graduated with a degree in Medicine in 1986.

She embarked on a career in hospital paediatrics but, after five years as a junior doctor in London, she moved to Bristol to train as a general practitioner, qualifying as a family doctor in 1992.

Wollaston then moved to Devon to work as a part-time GP in a town on the edge of Dartmoor.

She was also a police surgeon from 1996 to 2001, dealing with victims of sexual assaults, advising the police on whether suspects were fit to be interviewed, and treating people in custody.

After 1999, she became a full-time GP; she taught medical students and trainee GPs, and worked as an examiner for the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Wollaston joined the Conservative Party in 2006, having been spurred into politics by her opposition to the threatened closure of Moretonhampstead Community Hospital.

However, Wollaston accepted that she had "no background in politics" when in 2009 she put her name forward for the selection of a candidate for the Totnes constituency, citing as qualifications "only real life experience, approachability and enthusiasm".

The Conservative Association placed her on the shortlist of three to succeed Anthony Steen, who had announced his retirement after criticism as part of the United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal.

Urged to do so by the national party, the local Conservative Association had already decided that the selection would be made by an open primary, in which non-members would have a vote.

On 9 July, the Conservative Party leader David Cameron announced that the party would, for the first time, send a postal ballot paper to every voter instead of holding the selection at an open meeting.

Wollaston later said that she might not have put her name forward had she known that the selection was to be by open primary.

During the selection process, Wollaston campaigned on the problems of alcohol-related crime, citing also the 8,000 annual deaths from alcohol.

She later supported curbs on low priced alcoholic drinks.

but highlighted that the selection offered voters a choice between a career politician and "someone with a real job".

At a public hustings, she was asked whether her lack of political experience would make it difficult for her to throw and take political punches; she replied that this was not what politics was about for her, and that she would not indulge in it.

Her reply prompted spontaneous applause.

At the 2010 general election, she won the seat with an increased majority, increasing it further in 2015.

Wollaston remains on the medical register, but ceased practising medicine in 2010 on her election to Parliament.

She rebelled against the Cameron–Clegg government on several key votes – voting in favour of a referendum on British membership of the European Union in 2011, for a cut in the EU budget in 2011, and against military intervention in Syria in 2013.

In Westminster, she was a vocal proponent of minimum unit pricing for alcohol and spoke out against political patronage.

She was chair of the Health Select Committee from 2014 to 2019 and chair of the Liaison Committee from 2017 to 2019.

Wollaston was born in Woking, Surrey, and studied medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School.

Initially uncertain about which way to vote in the referendum, Wollaston announced in June 2016 that she was no longer supporting the Vote Leave campaign in the referendum on European Union membership and would vote to remain in the EU.

In February 2019, she resigned from the Conservatives, along with two of her peers, and joined The Independent Group, later Change UK.

Four months later, she quit the party to sit as an independent MP.

In August 2019, she joined the Liberal Democrats but lost her seat in the 2019 general election standing as a Liberal Democrat.