Geek the Vote Profile: Sarah Teather

Sarah Teather is defending her seat of Brent East, which she won in a 2003 by-election in which the Lib Dems had previously been in third place. In the 2005 election she held the seat with an increased majority.

Sarah is a highly scientifically literate candidate, having studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, with a specialism in pharmacology. She has also worked for the Royal Society, Macmillan Cancer Relief and a science policy consultancy. From July to December 2007 she was the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

She was also dubbed an ‘expenses saint’ by the Telegraph for claiming nothing for a second-home allowance.

In commons debates, Sarah has pressed the government on the closure of physics departments and the recruitment of properly qualified teachers in science, as well as providing the means for school students to study three separate sciences.

In 2008 she secured a debate on the National DNA Database, pointing out the flaws in the system; the likelihood of mis-identification when working with partial DNA profiles and the huge over-representation of black people whose records are stored in the database without having been charged with an offence. Among those is her colleague Councillor James Allie, who had DNA records taken by police while he was jogging on boxing day.