Sarah Wollaston

She was the sponsor of the Stalking Protection Act 2019.

On 20 February 2019, Wollaston resigned from the Conservative Party, along with two other MPs from her party, joining The Independent Group, later styled Change UK. Prior to her defection, 50 local Conservatives signed a petition calling for a no-confidence vote in Wollaston over her position on Brexit, though one of the petition organisers admitted that he had only recently joined the party in order to seek her deselection. In June 2019, she left Change UK to sit as an independent MP.

On 14 August 2019, Wollaston joined the Liberal Democrats. She sought re-election as Liberal Democrat candidate for Totnes, but finished second to the Conservative party candidate Anthony Mangnall, losing by a margin of 12,724 votes.

In March 2019, it emerged that Wollaston had sponsored a Ten Minute Rule bill in November 2011 which would have required MPs who switch parties to face an automatic by-election. Wollaston herself switched parties on 20 February 2019, but did not call a by-election. Chair of the Labour Party in Totnes and South Devon, Lynn Alderson, said Dr Wollaston "made her views clear". Wollaston acknowledged the likely calls for her to face a by-election but refused such a proposal, stating "neither this nor a general election would answer the fundamental question that is dividing us".

Wollaston switched to The Independent Group, which advocates for a second referendum, in 2019. She later switched to the Liberal Democrats campaigning under the slogan "Stop Brexit".

She was first elected in 2010 for the Conservatives, and was Chair of the Health Select Committee from 2014 to 2019 and of the Liaison Committee from 13 November 2017 to 2019 in the House of Commons. In February 2019, she resigned from the Conservative Party, along with two of her peers, and joined The Independent Group, later styled Change UK. Four months later, she quit the party to sit as an independent MP. On 14 August 2019, she joined the Liberal Democrats.

In the 2017 general election, she was returned with a reduced majority of 13,477, despite gaining 2,031 more votes.

Wollaston was the only Conservative politician to vote for a pause in the roll-out of Universal Credit on 18 October 2017. The vote was non-binding on the government.

In December 2017, Wollaston voted along with fellow Conservative Dominic Grieve and nine other Tory MPs against the government, and in favour of guaranteeing Parliament a "meaningful vote" on any deal Theresa May agrees with Brussels over Brexit. She also supports the People's Vote campaign for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union, co-founding the group Right to Vote in early 2019. Wollaston strongly opposes a no-deal Brexit. In December 2018, she said: "If it becomes the main objective of government policy to deliver no deal and no transition, then the consequences of that would be so horrific for the people I represent then I couldn't stay a member of the Conservative party."

When campaigning for re-election at the 2017 general election, Wollaston promised her constituents, at a hustings, that she would "accept the result" of the 2016 EU referendum, noting that 54% of her constituents had voted to leave. She went on to state that "one of the things that annoys people is telling them that they didn't know what they were voting for", rejecting the idea of holding a second referendum.

Wollaston initially supported the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 referendum on European Union membership, stating in an article in The Guardian following David Cameron's renegotiation of membership terms in February 2016 that "the prime minister has returned with a threadbare deal that has highlighted our powerlessness to effect institutional change" and that "the balance of our national interest now lies outside the EU". However, she announced on 8 June 2016 that she would change sides to campaign for Britain to remain in the EU, claiming that Vote Leave's assertion that exiting the union would make available £350m a week for health spending "simply isn't true" and represented "post-truth politics". She also suggested that leaving the EU would harm the UK's economy, leading to a "Brexit penalty".

In 2015, an undercover Daily Telegraph investigation showed that in some cases, locum agencies Medicare and Team24, owned by Capita, were charging some hospitals higher fees than others and giving false company details. The agencies were charging up to 49% of the fee. Wollaston said the Government should publish details of agency charges as transparency would "drive changes to behaviour".

Wollaston was reckoned by the Health Service Journal to be the 20th-most influential person (and second-most influential woman) in the English NHS in 2015.

Having been on the draft Bill Committee for the Care and Support Bill, Wollaston was selected to sit on the Public Bill Committee for the Care Bill in early 2014. There she introduced a number of amendments, including one which would have made terminally ill patients exempt from social care charges.

Wollaston was elected as a member of the Health Select Committee upon entering Parliament, and became Chair of the Committee in June 2014 after Stephen Dorrell retired. She defeated fellow GP Phillip Lee, Caroline Spelman, Charlotte Leslie, and David Tredinnick to the role. She was re-elected to this position after the 2015 general election.

Wollaston lives in South Devon with her husband Adrian James, a psychiatrist, who is a registrar of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. They met while studying medicine at Guy's Hospital. They have two daughters and one son. She is a keen cyclist - often on a tandem - and took part in the 2014 RideLondon 100-mile bike race with her husband.

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. She has been a vocal proponent of minimum unit pricing for alcohol and has spoken out against political patronage in Westminster. Initially a prominent Eurosceptic, in June 2016 she announced 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.

On election day Wollaston was elected with a 45.9% share of the vote, and more than doubled the Conservatives' majority. She supported the formation of a Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government as being the most appropriate for her constituency in the circumstances after the election, explaining that voters wanted to see politicians working together.

In March 2013, Wollaston was reselected by her local Conservative Association to fight the 2015 general election as the Conservative candidate. On polling day she was re-elected with 53% of the vote, more than tripling her majority to 18,285 (38.8%).

During her campaign for selection as Conservative candidate in Totnes, Wollaston pledged to tackle the issue of alcohol misuse, having seen the impact of it during her medical career. In Westminster, she pushed for an introduction of minimum unit pricing for alcohol, arguing that a 50p minimum unit price would save almost 3,000 lives a year and save the NHS over £6bn over ten years while costing a moderate drinker only £12 extra per year. When plans to introduce minimum pricing were shelved by the Government in 2013, Wollaston strongly criticised David Cameron and Department for Health Ministers, saying that the change in policy was due to lobbying by Conservative Party strategist Lynton Crosby, whose firm had strong ties to the alcohol industry. Following her comments, she was named MP of the Month by Total Politics for her tough stance.

Wollaston voted in favour of allowing same-sex marriage in 2013, writing that "people who are gay should be allowed to celebrate their love and commitment in a context that society understands". She branded opponents of the change "bigots".

In September 2013, she entered the debate about niqābs, saying that some women found them offensive and urging the Government to ban them in schools on the grounds of gender equality.

In 2013, she was a signatory to a campaign for women to be able to inherit noble titles, instead of these being restricted to the male line.

Following her selection through the open primary process, she urged the leaders of all parties to expand their use, particularly in safe seats. She said that the cost could be significantly lower than that of the Totnes primary by combining local and European elections with primary elections. In 2013, she suggested that the idea of expanding primaries had been 'shelved' because it was felt that they produce 'awkward' independently-minded MPs.

In August 2013, Wollaston rebelled and voted against military intervention in Syria, saying that such a move could escalate into a wider conflict with hundreds of thousands of victims. She cited strong opposition to intervention by her constituents as a key factor in deciding to vote against.

On the European Union, Wollaston originally supported loosening the relationship between Britain and Brussels and said that she would reluctantly vote to leave the EU if reform could not be achieved. Writing for ConservativeHome in 2013, she expressed support for EU membership because of access to the single market, but questioned whether it was worth the extra bureaucracy for business, loss of sovereignty, and the deficit in democracy. In the House of Commons, she voted in a Eurosceptic manner in several key divisions, voting for a referendum on Britain's EU membership and voting to reduce the EU budget.

In March 2011, Wollaston warned David Cameron that the Government's NHS reforms would result in the NHS going "belly up". She warned that the reorganisation would result in confusion with doctors being overwhelmed. She said there was a risk that Monitor, the new regulator would be filled with "competition economists" who would change the NHS beyond recognition and there was no point "liberating" the NHS from political control only to shackle it to an unelected economic regulator. However, her opposition to the NHS reforms calmed after the party leadership changed certain clauses at her suggestions and she eventually voted in favour of passage of the Health and Social Care Bill.

Before entering the House of Commons, Wollaston stated that she was "strongly pro-choice", and would not support lowering the abortion limit, as such a measure would affect those who are in the greatest need. In 2011, she voted against backbench amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill which would have prevented abortion providers from offering counselling services.

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

Wollaston's maiden speech in Parliament, on 2 June 2010, outlined her concerns about alcohol-related crime and alcoholic drink pricing, and also mentioned issues of concern in her constituency, including bovine tuberculosis. Soon after her election, she was offered the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary – a junior aide – to one of the Health Ministers, influenced by her professional background. Despite this position being the first rung on the ministerial ladder, Wollaston turned the offer down because it would have required her to avoid speaking out against any Government policy she disagreed with. She later said that she would not have been able to "look [her] constituents in the eye" if she had signed away her ability to speak on the issues she had been elected on.

In October 2010, she announced that she would not vote to repeal the Hunting Act 2004 because "the overwhelming majority" in her constituency were opposed to hunting. She broke the Conservative whip in November 2010 to support an amendment setting a threshold of 40% turnout for the result of the referendum on voting systems to be valid, and later that month supported a Labour amendment to allow more policyholders to claim compensation over the collapse in Equitable Life dividends.

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.

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 was born in Woking, Surrey, and studied medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School. 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, Wollaston ran for political office. She was the first person to be selected as the parliamentary candidate for a major British political party through a postal open primary; during the campaign, she emphasised that she was not a career politician, and had a real job. As the Conservative Party candidate for Totnes in the 2010 general election she won the seat with an increased majority, increasing it further in 2015. However, she lost her seat in the 2019 general election standing as a Liberal Democrat.

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.

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.

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.

Sarah Wollaston (born 17 February 1962) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Totnes from 2010 to 2019. She also served as a Change UK and Conservative Party MP.

Wollaston was born in 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.