Layla Moran

Once tipped as a future leader of her party, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon since 2017, Layla Moran, has been seen as a break with the past. Moran was the first ever female Liberal Democrat MP with an ethnic minority background and the first MP of Palestinian heritage; her father is a British EU ambassador and she spent much of her childhood moving between countries including Jordan, Greece and Ethiopia. Holding a degree in physics, Moran presents an evidence-based approach to climate change and other scientific issues. In parliament, she has raised concerns over the closure of Sure Start centres and the underfunding of schools. Amid a disappointing 2019 election for her party nationally, Moran was able to keep her South of England seat with an enlarged majority of 8,943, having won in 2017 with a narrower winning margin of 816. She is currently opposition spokesperson for international development and for foreign and commonwealth affairs. Moran is unafraid of controversy, and at the 2017 Liberal Democrat conference called Nick Clegg’s tuition fees U-turn the “pink dancing elephant in the room.”