Representing Farmers in the European Parliament

As MEP for the West Midlands region since 1999, Liz represents a huge number of farmers and rural communities and she takes a keen interest in matters concerning agriculture and rural development. She works closely to represent farmers' interests from across her regional constituency with Scottish MEP George Lyon, lead agriculture spokesman for the UK LibDem group in the European Parliament.

Liz has worked hard to represent farmers in the European Parliament, speaking out against the government's handling of the 2001 Foot and Mouth crisis and mandatory individual sheep-tagging. She also spoke in favour of a ban on Brazilian beef until its safety from Foot and Mouth disease could be assured.

In 2007 when catastrophic flooding hit central and northern England, Liz campaigned for the government to apply for aid from the EU Solidarity Fund. Once approved, she campaigned for the money awarded to come, in its entirety, to the regions affected. This year she has called for the EU to pool resources from specialist military and emergency services to form a European Rapid Reaction force to deal with floods, fires or other natural disasters. With extreme weather getting more common, there are real doubts as to how Britain's overstretched armed forces would cope if the foot of rain that fell on Cumbria in November 2009 affected a major city instead. In 2009 Liz also campaigned hard to change the crazy plan of individual sheep tags.

For more information on rural and agricultural issues, click here.

Liz previously made the headlines across Europe when in 1999 she carried a joint of Herefordshire beef across French customs to protest against their illegal ban on British beef.