LibDem Euro-MP joins LIBERTY Council

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 10th Jun 2002

Baroness Sarah Ludford, the LibDem Member of the European Parliament for London, has been elected to the governing Council of LIBERTY, the top independent human rights organisation.

In a postal ballot of LIBERTY's members, Sarah Ludford came third out of 27 candidates seeking 15 places on the Council. She came ahead of Trevor Phillips, the prominent Labour member of the Greater London Assembly. Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, topped the poll.

Sarah Ludford commented: "I am delighted to have been elected to the Council of LIBERTY so high up the list on my first attempt. This is a tribute to the powerful profile the Liberal Democrats have forged in the area of civil liberties and individual rights, putting 'freedom' at the heart of all our polices."

"It is also a recognition of the increasing trend for challenges to civil rights to arise at European level, for instance in making the fight against terrorism a pretext for discriminatory actions or breaches of privacy."

In the European Parliament, Sarah Ludford is the justice and home affairs spokeswoman for the European Liberal Democrat group, and is the most prominent British MEP on civil liberties issues. She is outspoken on the need for high standards of justice in the EU, and fair asylum and immigration policies. She recently led the Liberal group in voting against broad powers for EU governments to keep tabs on people's phone and email usage, which Labour and Tory MEPs however agreed to.