Wera Hobhouse

In February 2020, Hobhouse announced that she would be a candidate in the 2020 Liberal Democrats leadership election.

In February 2019, Hobhouse was made the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the environment and climate change. In this capacity, Hobhouse pushed for an end to most carbon emissions by 2030, and for net-zero carbon emissions to be achieved by 2045 at the latest. This became the policy position of the Liberal Democrats at their conference in September 2019, where Hobhouse gave a keynote speech on tackling the climate crisis. Among the proposals that she has promoted to meet these targets, Hobhouse has called for a permanent ban on fracking, for increased investment in renewable energy, for greater powers to be given to local authorities to cut emissions, and for all airport expansion to be halted until a replacement can be found for jet fuel.

On 6 March 2018, Hobhouse presented a Private Members' Bill to amend the Sexual Offences Act 2003; her bill aimed to outlaw acts of voyeurism, especially upskirting, which were not then explicitly covered by UK law. Justice Secretary David Gauke signalled that the government would support Hobhouse's bill, which was later supported by the Prime Minister, Theresa May. Hobhouse's bill was not debated at its presentation in the House of Commons. At its second reading in the Commons on 15 June 2018, Conservative MP Christopher Chope objected to Hobhouse's bill, preventing its passage through the Commons. Chope's actions drew immediate criticism from fellow MPs. May also expressed her disappointment at the objection. Chope said that his reason for blocking the bill's passage was in objection to parliamentary procedure rather than to the bill itself: he stated that he would "wholeheartedly" support a government bill that outlawed upskirting. Following his objection, the government reaffirmed its commitment to introduce legislation to outlaw upskirting. A government bill to outlaw upskirting was introduced to the House of Commons on 21 June 2018; and passed its second reading on 3 July 2018 to become the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019.

In an interview with HuffPost UK published in May 2018, Hobhouse warned against the "toxic" immigration debate in the UK. She acknowledged her party's limited resources following its electoral collapse at the 2015 general election, and affirmed that she was happy with Vince Cable as the party's leader. She urged the party to do more to increase its diversity. In July 2018, Hobhouse was criticised for claiming £4,800 in parliamentary expenses for a heavy duty colour printer. Defending her actions, Hobhouse said that she had saved the taxpayer £40,000 by taking over the lease from Bath's previous MP and that she required the printer for her constituency letters. In October 2018, Hobhouse's constituency office announced that it had completed 6,000 pieces of casework.

Shortly before the 2017 general election, Hobhouse was selected to stand for parliament in Bath when the prospective candidate stood down. The constituency was held by the Conservative MP Ben Howlett, and had previously been held by the Liberal Democrat Don Foster from 1992 to 2015. Hobhouse stood on a pro-European platform which emphasised housing, education, congestion and pollution concerns, as well as opposition to the incumbent Conservative MP 's plans to link the A46 and A36 roads together. Her party emphasised the need for Labour supporters to vote tactically for Hobhouse to defeat the Conservatives. Hobhouse gained the seat with a majority of 5,694 votes and a 17.6% increase in the Liberal Democrat vote share, the second-highest vote share increase for the party nationally.

Following her election, Hobhouse was appointed as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for housing, communities and local government. She made her maiden speech on 29 June 2017, and sits on the Committee on Exiting the European Union.

In 2014, Hobhouse retired as a councillor for Norden and moved to Bath. She unsuccessfully contested the constituencies of Heywood and Middleton in 2010 and North East Somerset in 2015. She stood unsuccessfully for election to the Bath and North East Somerset Council for the Peasedown ward in the 2015 local election.

Hobhouse was reelected in 2006 and 2010 for the Liberal Democrats in Norden. The Liberal Democrats assumed majority control of Rochdale Council in 2007; Hobhouse served as the cabinet member for the environment between 2006 and 2009 and chaired the health scrutiny committee from 2009 to 2010. After the Liberal Democrats lost majority control of the council in 2010, and following poor local election results, Hobhouse was elected as the leader of the much-reduced Liberal Democrat group on Rochdale Council in May 2011. In July 2011, Hobhouse accused a council officer of failing to act impartially, and later apologised after the council officer began legal action for defamation.

Hobhouse was first elected in 2004 as a Conservative councillor for the ward of Norden on Rochdale Council, Greater Manchester. At the same election, her husband was elected as a Conservative councillor for the ward of Bamford, also in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Her political career in Rochdale was defined by the Spodden Valley asbestos controversy; the proposed development of 650 homes on an asbestos-contaminated site. Hobhouse and her husband opposed the proposals, leading them to defect to the Liberal Democrats in 2005. They were criticised at the time for not triggering by-elections to seek fresh mandates as Liberal Democrat councillors. The development was blocked seven years later in 2011.

Wera Hobhouse has been married to William Hobhouse since 1989. They both cite the fall of the Berlin Wall as a pivotal moment in their lives, which they witnessed when they lived in Germany. They have four children, two sons and two daughters. She naturalised as a British citizen in 2007. She and her husband own a Rochdale and Germany based company, Compotex, that manufactures bonding, priming and adhesion products for the textile and rubber industries.

Wera Benedicta Hobhouse (née von Reden; born 8 February 1960) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath since 2017.She is the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the environment and climate change and a candidate in the 2020 Liberal Democrats leadership election.

Wera Benedicta von Reden was born on 8 February 1960 in Hanover, Germany. She studied history and fine art at the University of Münster, and afterwards studied art for two years at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Hobhouse then moved back to Germany, completing a master's degree in history and fine art in Berlin. She married William Hobhouse in 1989 and moved to England the following year. They first lived in Liverpool, where Wera Hobhouse opened an art gallery on Falkner Street. They moved to Rochdale in 1999. Prior to her political career, she was a teacher, radio journalist and artist.