Former MP Dame Annette Brooke dies

Dame Annette Brooke served the constituency of Mid-Dorset and North Poole from 2001 to 2015

Dame Annette Brooke, who became the longest-serving female Liberal Democrat MP, has died aged 78.

Dame Annette served the constituency of Mid-Dorset and North Poole in Parliament from 2001 to 2015 and was voted MP of the year in 2010.

An economics teacher in Aylesbury and then Bournemouth, she was also a tutor with the Open University for 20 years.

Her constituency was won back by the Conservatives in 2015, though she supported the leader of BCP Council Vikki Slade in recapturing it in 2024.

In a tribute, Ms Slade said Dame Annette was "a champion for social justice, inequality and the most incredible constituency MP we could have asked for".

"She was a huge influence in the Liberal Democrats bringing many local people into politics and people on the doorsteps still talk about her with genuine love, remembering how she helped them individually," she added.

Dame Annette hosted a refugee family from Ukraine and campaigned to change the rules on the use of cars from abroad

Dame Annette Brooke had a strong interest in developing countries and campaigned for microfinance to help the world's poorest people become self-sufficient.

In Parliament she spoke on Home Affairs under Charles Kennedy, and then moved on to develop the Liberal Democrats' position on children, schools and families.

Her lobbying on equal access for disabled children led to the final Harry Potter book being released in Braille on the same day as the print version.

She spent 17 years as a Poole councillor, overseeing the council's move to a unitary authority.

Dame Annette listed her interests as reading, going to the gym, and shopping with her daughters.

When she stepped down from Westminster politics she kept a strong interest in Dorset political life with her husband Mike, a Poole councillor, while also supporting Dementia charities.

Her campaigning often spread to others. Hosting a refugee family from Ukraine she took to the media to support their argument to change the rules on the use of cars from abroad.

Dame Annette Brooke never fulfilled a childhood ambition to be the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer, but as a campaigning Liberal Democrat she made a distinctive contribution to local and national public life.