Caroline Voaden

Caroline Jane Voaden (born 22 November 1968) is a British politician and international journalist, who has served as Member of Parliament for South Devon since 2024 for the Liberal Democrats, having previously served as the party's leader in the European Parliament from 2019 to 2020, and was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South West England and Gibraltar constituency from 2019 to 2020.

Voaden has covered six European countries in her capacity as a journalist. Whilst covering the latter years of the Yugoslav Wars in Zagreb, she made history as the youngest female bureau chief at Reuters.

Personal life Caroline Voaden was born in Wantage in Berkshire, on 22 November 1968, and grew up in Scotland. She studied French and Economics at Sheffield University, with a year abroad living in Lille. In 2007, after being widowed at the age of 34, Voaden moved to Devon with her two young daughters. She married again and has a stepson.

In 2007, she moved to Devon, where she founded her own modern craft brand in 2012. In 2018 she became operations manager at a resettlement charity working with offenders and prisoners from HM Prison Channings Wood.

Political career Voaden joined the Liberal Democrats the day after the Brexit referendum in 2016, seeking to oppose Brexit and campaign for a second referendum on EU membership.

European Parliament In 2019, Voaden was elected as Member of the European Parliament for the South West of England constituency, having campaigned on a platform of stopping Brexit and fighting climate change.

She sat as a full member of the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, a substitute member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Vice-President of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with the Arabian Peninsula. Voaden featured on BBC television's Question Time in October 2019.

In November 2019, Catherine Bearder announced, that she would be stepping down as the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament. Voaden was subsequently elected as the leader of the European party.

She was a member of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. Her name was removed after Brexit.

House of Commons She stood against Gary Streeter as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the South West Devon constituency in the 2017 General Election, coming third with 5.2% of the vote.

In 2024, she won the "South Devon Primary" to be the Liberal Democrat candidate in the new South Devon constituency, which was effectively a renamed version of the abolished Totnes constituency with minor boundary changes.

Following the Liberal Democrat Conference in Bournemouth in September 2025, Voaden was appointed Schools Spokesperson on the frontbench team of Ed Davey.