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Caroline Voaden

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Caroline Voaden
MP
Official portrait, 2024
Member of Parliament
for South Devon
Assumed office
4 July 2024
Preceded byConstituency re-established
Majority7,127 (10.1%)
Member of the European Parliament
for South West England
In office
2 July 2019[1][2] – 31 January 2020
Preceded byJulie Girling
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament
In office
12 November 2019 – 31 January 2020
DeputyLuisa Porritt
LeaderJo Swinson
Sir Ed Davey and Brinton/Pack (interim)
Preceded byCatherine Bearder
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Personal details
Born (1968-11-22) 22 November 1968 (age 55)
Wantage, Oxfordshire, England
Political partyLiberal Democrats
Alma materUniversity of Sheffield
ProfessionJournalist
Websitewww.carolinevoaden.com Edit this at Wikidata

Caroline Jane Voaden (born 22 November 1968) is a British politician and international journalist, who has served as Member of Parliament for South Devon since 2024 for the Liberal Democrats, having previously served as the party's leader in the European Parliament from 2019 to 2020, and was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South West England and Gibraltar constituency from 2019 to 2020.[3]

Voaden has covered six European countries in her capacity as a journalist.[4] Whilst covering the latter years of the Yugoslav Wars in Zagreb, she made history as the youngest female bureau chief at Reuters.[5]

Personal life

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Caroline Voaden was born in Wantage in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire), on 22 November 1968, and grew up in Scotland. She studied French and Economics at Sheffield, with a year abroad living in Lille.[6][7] In 2012, after being widowed at the age of 34, Voaden moved to Devon with her two young daughters. She married again and has a stepson.[7]

Professional career

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From 1991 to 2000, Voaden worked for the Reuters news agency, undergoing assignments in Amsterdam, Dublin, Bonn, Belgrade and Zagreb.[8]

In 2007, she moved to Devon, where she founded her own modern craft brand in 2012. In 2018 she became operations manager at a resettlement charity working with offenders and prisoners from HM Prison Channings Wood.[4]

Voaden was chair of the national WAY Foundation from 2009 to 2011, a charity that supports men and women widowed under the age of 50.[4]

From 2000 to 2007, she served in the team which established JustGiving, as an online editor for the charitable social platform.

From November 2021 to May 2023 she was the chief executive of Devon Rape Crisis & Sexual Abuse Services.[9]

Political career

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Voaden joined the Liberal Democrats the day after the Brexit referendum in 2016, seeking to oppose Brexit and campaign for a second referendum on EU membership.[10]

European Parliament

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In 2019, Voaden was elected as Member of the European Parliament for the South West of England constituency, having campaigned on a platform of stopping Brexit and fighting climate change.[11]

She sat as a full member of the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, a substitute member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Vice-President of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with the Arabian Peninsula.[6]

Following criticism of BBC television's Question Time for having never featured a pro-Remain MEP,[12] Voaden was the first pro-European MEP to feature, in October 2019.[13]

In November 2019, Catherine Bearder announced, that she would be stepping down as the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament. Voaden was subsequently elected as the leader of the European party.[14][15]

She was a member of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament.[16] Her name was removed after Brexit.

House of Commons

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She stood against Gary Streeter as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the South West Devon constituency in the 2017 General Election, coming third with 5.2% of the vote.[17]

In 2024, she won the "South Devon Primary" to be the Liberal Democrat candidate in the South Devon constituency.[18] In the 2024 general election, she was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for South Devon with 22,540 votes (46.0%) and a majority of 7,127 over the second place Conservative candidate.[19] The constituency had last been in use in 1885.

References

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  1. ^ "Key dates ahead". European Parliament. 20 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  2. ^ "Key dates ahead". BBC News. 22 May 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  3. ^ "The UK's European elections 2019". BBC News. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  4. ^ a b c "Caroline Voaden". carolinevoaden.info. Archived from the original on 28 May 2019.
  5. ^ Rossiter, Keith (16 May 2019). "EU elections: Why big is beautiful". Devon Live. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  6. ^ a b "MEPs: Caroline VOADEN". European Parliament. 22 November 1968. Archived from the original on 29 July 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  7. ^ a b "carolinevoaden". carolinevoaden. Archived from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  8. ^ "Ex-Reuters bureau chief elected MEP". The Baron. 27 May 2019. Archived from the original on 21 June 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  9. ^ "Caroline Voaden CEO – Devon Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Services". Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  10. ^ "Caroline Voaden". Torbay Liberal Democrats. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  11. ^ Rossiter, Keith (16 May 2019). "EU elections: Why big is beautiful". Devon Live. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  12. ^ @JPCherr (7 October 2018). "Replying to @SebDance @sandypuke and 7 others" (Tweet). Retrieved 3 December 2019 – via Twitter.
  13. ^ "13 UK European Parliament candidates to watch". POLITICO. 27 April 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
  14. ^ "Gibraltar MEP Caroline Voaden elected new leader of UK's Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament". www.gbc.gi. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  15. ^ Nixon, Matthew. "Lib Dems elect new leader for European parliament". The New European. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  16. ^ "Our MEP's". Renew Europe. Archived from the original on 1 February 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.
  17. ^ "Devon South West parliamentary constituency - Election 2017". BBC News. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  18. ^ "Group chooses candidate to take on Totnes Tory MP". BBC News. 16 March 2024. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  19. ^ "South Devon - General election results 2024". BBC News. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
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