Simon Hughes

Simon Hughes is a British politician, and Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for North Southwark & Bermondsey. He was elected as President of the Liberal Democrats on 1st September 2004 defeating Lembit Öpik with 71% of the returned votes . He will asuume the position when the current incumbent Lord Navnit Dholakia retires later this month. The party president chairs a number of party committees and is also a figurehead who represents the party at official functions.

He was elected to Parliament as a Liberal, in alliance with the Social Democratic Party, for the constituency of Bermondsey (since renamed) in a 1983 by-election. The election was contentious and the unsuccessful Labour Party candidate was Peter Tatchell. Hughes was the Alliance's spokesman for the environment from 1983 to 1988. Along with the majority of Liberals, he joined the newly founded Liberal Democrats in 1988, acting as spokesman for education until 1992, then the environment again until 1994, then health until 1997, and then home affairs until 2003.

He is now Liberal Democrat frontbench spokesman for London and was their candidate for the 2004 Mayor of London elections. He came third with 15.22% of the first preference vote. He picked up the most second preference votes of any candidates; but as he was not in the top two, these did not contribute to the outcome.