Who is Daisy Cooper – rise of Liberal Democrat deputy chief and boat stunt

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper will top off a meteoric rise within her party when she stars in the BBC’s seven-way TV debate this evening.

The 42-year-old only became an MP in 2019, when she defeated Tory MP Anne Main in her St Albans seat. She became the first liberal to win the seat in over a hundred years.

Ms Cooper is currently the Lib Dems health and social care spokesperson and deputy leader, putting her close to the heart of the party as they attempt to take dozens of seats off the struggling Conservatives. In a memorable moment of the campaign so far on Monday, she joined other party activists to ‘photobomb’ Rishi Sunak live on-air by sailing behind him in a boat with their posters.

She and the Liberal Democrat campaigners floated behind him waving placards as he filmed the TV clip with broadcasters – and said they did it to raise awareness of sewage in rivers. Clive Jones, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Wokingham, joined her in the boat and said: “We took the opportunity to sail past in order to raise awareness of our bold new manifesto commitment to clean up rivers and coastlines.

“The river marks the boundary between our two constituencies and we know how upset residents are by the constant dumping of sewage in our rivers. This is another small boat Rishi Sunak can’t deal with. There’s no rowing back from his record on soaring NHS waiting lists and rivers ruined by sewage.”

Before she was elected, Daisy worked to promote LGBT+ rights abroad in commonwealth affairs, according to her website. The role also saw her evaluate taxpayers’ money is used to help people in poverty abroad. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she joined a group of 25 MPs from six parties to call on the Government to scrap the 10pm pub curfew.

As an MP she has opposed expansion of London Luton Airport, called for protection for leaseholders billed for fixing fire safety defects and has appealed for more students, parents and teachers. She gave a speech about police brutality in St Albans during the George Floyd protests in June 2020. Daisy has also been vocal on the issue of women’s safety, and signed a joint letter calling on then-Home Secretary Priti Patel to “act now” on violence against women and girls three years ago. More recently, she defended Lib Dem leader and former Post Office minister Sir Ed Davey over the Horizon IT scandal, accusing opponents of using the issue as a “political football”.