Chris Coghlan is the Liberal Democrat MP for Dorking and Horley, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Coghlan won 20,921 votes, representing 41.9% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Marisa Heath, received 15,530 votes (31.1%). The Reform UK candidate secured 6,898 votes (13.8%). Coghlan was duly elected with a majority of 5,391.

The Dorking and Horley constituency is located in Surrey, South East England. It was newly created for the 2024 general election, formed primarily from the former Mole Valley constituency.

The former Mole Valley seat was by the Conservatives since its creation in 1983. Sir Paul Beresford represented the seat from 1997 to 2024.

Political Career

Coghlan is a member of the House of Commons Treasury select committee (since October 2024) – the committee tasked with scrutinising His Majesty’s Treasury and government policy on taxation and public spending. The committee’s remit also extends to scrutinising major financial institutions that shape the UK economy, including the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

In April 2025, Coghlan was among the group of MPs placed on a sanctions list by the Russian government. The measure barred them from entering Russia and was presented by Moscow as a retaliatory response to the UK’s stance on the invasion of Ukraine.

Coghlan is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for reserves and cadets.

Coghlan delivered his maiden speech on 2 September 2024 during a debate on technology in public services.

In it, he stated: “Growing up, I developed a passion for public service, which helped me to move beyond the pain of her loss. It is why, when I saw that ISIS was murdering people, I joined the Foreign Office and Army Reserve, and served in Iraq.

“It is why I left my job in a hedge fund to start a charity training African entrepreneurs with Violet Busingye, a Rwandan refugee from the genocide. It is why I am here now.”

He added: “Statistics show that one of the worst places in the country for the special needs crisis is Surrey. A headteacher in Horley wrote to me to say that she has to take special needs children even though she does not have the specially trained staff to support them, as is their right.”

Before entering parliament, Coghlan was elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor on Mole Valley District Council in May 2021.

Coghlan stood as an independent anti-Brexit candidate in Battersea in the 2017 general election. He secured 1,234 votes (2.2%), placing fourth behind the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.

Coghlan stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Leicester South in the 2019 general election.

In 2017, Coghlan co-founded a new centrist, anti-Brexit political party called Renew. The party supported a second Brexit referendum.

Coghlan told the Financial Times in October 2017: “Our kids are being left behind. We’re leaving them with our debts; we’re leaving them with poisonous air and they’re angry about Brexit.”

At the time, Coghlan expressed doubts about the Liberal Democrats as a political force. “I’m not sure that they’re capable of reforming as an organisation into a winning political force”, he said.

Renew’s official launch took place at the QEII Centre in Westminster in February 2018. The project was compared to Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche! party in France.

In an April 2018 Times article, Coghlan said that Renew stood “for a second referendum and a tech revolution to leave no one behind.”

He added: “Our country’s greatest opportunity is now. The tech revolution means that we have the opportunity, with the right training, regulatory, and taxation response, to build a new economic model to leave no one behind.

“The housing crisis is only a crisis from lack of political will. New technology means that when my little girls Camilla and Anna grow up, we could have ended cancer, climate change and extreme poverty.”

Coghlan resigned from Renew in May 2018.

In a statement posted to social media, Coghlan said it had become clear that “other senior members of the party do not share the same values as I do”.

He said: “It has become increasingly clear that the vision for the party I founded could not be delivered through the existing senior team, and that that team will resist any attempt to change the current structure through democratic means. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I am leaving the party.”

Coghlan then joined the Liberal Democrats and stood for the party at the 2019 election. He said he had come to the opinion that “the Liberal Democrats are the future of liberal Britain. I have been delighted with the warm reception I have received from fellow Lib Dem members.”

Political views

The Liberal Democrats (or Lib Dems) are a liberal political party, occupying the centre to centre-left ground in British politics.

The preamble to the Lib Dem constitution begins: “The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.”

The Liberal Democrat autumn conference in 2021 ratified a policy paper entitled What Liberal Democrats Believe. The paper, an attempt to expand on the constitution’s preamble, was framed around seven “principles and values”.

The party’s core values were described as “liberty, equality, democracy, community, internationalism and environmentalism.”

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Coghlan voted in favour of the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the 10-minute rule procedure by Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, sought to mandate the government to enter into negotiations with the European Union to establish a bespoke customs union. In total, 13 Labour MPs joined the Liberal Democrats in supporting the motion, while the majority of the party abstained.

Electoral reform

Electoral reform amendment: In May 2026, Coghlan signed an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, calling on the government to establish a “national commission on electoral reform”. Tabled by Alex Sobel as chair of the fair elections APPG, the amendment aimed to force a rethink of the first past the post voting system.

At the time, Sobel described FPTP as “one of the biggest examples of a broken status quo in UK politics.” He invited colleagues to join this “common sense call to take a fresh look at how parliament is elected in modern Britain.”

Proportional representation bill: In December 2024, Coghlan voted in favour of the Elections (Proportional Representation) Bill – introduced by Liberal Democrat frontbencher Sarah Olney under the 10-minute rule procedure. The bill sought to “introduce a system of proportional representation for parliamentary elections and for local government elections in England”.

A total of 138 MPs supported the bill – with 136 opposed. Notably, 59 Labour MPs backed Olney’s bill.

Introducing the bill, Olney told the House: “First past the post is a broken and unfair system. This summer, the Labour party won a landslide election victory, securing 63% of seats in the House of Commons in return for just 34% of the vote.

“The system leaves millions of voices unheard and creates a divisive, adversarial political climate where collaboration is discouraged and accountability is often sidestepped.”

Assisted dying

Coghlan voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

After supporting the bill at third reading, Coghlan was reportedly denied communion by his local Catholic priest. “It is one thing to take a view on an MPs vote on a conscience vote in Parliament, it is quite another to go out and publicly name and shame them, as a Catholic priest, to hundreds of their constituents”, Coghlan said at the time.

In a June 2025 article for the House magazine, Coghlan stated: “I voted for assisted dying in accordance with the overwhelming wishes of my constituents, my conscience and nothing else. I believe that that is my duty as an MP.

“At every mass the following weekend, the priest publicly announced that I had broken canon law and was being denied Holy Communion. The congregation included children who are friends with my own children.

“By making a clear threat to me before the vote, the priest’s actions – intentionally or otherwise – were an attempt to coerce a member of parliament in their voting intention.”

Social values and conscience issues

Coghlan was one of the 38 Liberal Democrat MPs who voted for the Tobacco and Vapes Act at its House of Commons third reading.

Palestine

Palestinian recognition letter (July 2025): In July 2025, Coghlan was among the over 254 MPs to sign a cross-party letter calling for the government to immediately recognise the state of Palestine. The letter called on the prime minister and foreign secretary to recognise Palestine at the UN Conference then taking place in New York.

Before Politics

Born Christopher Austin Francis Coghlan, he grew up in Peaslake, Surrey.

He graduated from King’s College London in 2001, later completing a master’s degree in finance at London Business School (2012) and a master of public administration degree at Harvard Kennedy School (2014).

Coghlan subsequently worked in finance for around a decade, including a position at Deloitte.

He founded the Grow Movement, a social enterprise.

Coghlan has also worked as an anti-terrorism officer at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He resigned from this post to enter politics.

Coghlan is a former officer in the Army Reserve. He was called up by the army and embedded as a military advisor with Iraqi forces fighting ISIS.

Personal Life

Coghlan grew up in Surrey. He lives in his constituency with his wife and three children.

Trivia

Coghlan co-founded the Renew Party in 2018.