Sarah Wollaston

Sarah Wollaston
Official portrait, 2017
Chair of the Liaison Committee
In office 13 November 2017 – 6 November 2019
Preceded by	Andrew Tyrie
Succeeded by	Bernard Jenkin
Chair of the Health Select Committee
In office 18 June 2014 – 6 November 2019
Preceded by	Stephen Dorrell
Succeeded by	Jeremy Hunt
Member of Parliament for Totnes
In office 6 May 2010 – 6 November 2019
Preceded by	Anthony Steen
Succeeded by	Anthony Mangnall
Personal details
Born	(1962-02-17) 17 February 1962 (age 62) Woking, Surrey, England
Political party	Liberal Democrats (since 2019)
Other political affiliations	Change UK (2019) Conservative (until 2019)
Spouse	Adrian James ​ (m. 1988)​
Children	3
Education	King's College London Guy's Hospital Medical School
Profession	General practitioner
Website	www.drsarah.org.uk

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

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.