Dr Manuela Perteghella is the Liberal Democrat MP for Stratford-on-Avon, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Perteghella won 23,450 votes, representing 44.3% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Chris Clarkson, received 16,328 votes (30.8%), while the Reform UK candidate, James Crocker, secured 7,753 votes (14.6%). Perteghella was duly elected with a majority of 7,122.

The Stratford-on-Avon constituency is located in Warwickshire, in the West Midlands. The constituency was held by the Conservative Party from 1950 to 2024. Notable former MPs include John Profumo (1950-1963) and Nadhim Zahawi (2010-2024).

Political Career

Perteghella is a member of the House of Commons education select committee (since October 2024). The education committee scrutinises the work of the Department for Education (DfE) and its associated public bodies.

Perteghella is also a member of the House of Commons environmental audit (since November 2025) – the commons select committee that acts as parliament’s primary cross-departmental watchdog on environmental issues. The EAC has a wide-ranging remit to examine how the policies and programmes of all government departments and public bodies impact environmental protection and sustainable development.

In April 2025, Perteghella 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.

In March 2025, Perteghella participated in a Westminster Hall debate on a public petition calling for the United Kingdom to rejoin the European Union as a full member. The debate was triggered by an e-petition signed by over 128,000 people.

In the debate, Perteghella argued that Brexit had brought “nothing but barriers” for small businesses, farmers and the creative industries.

She stated: “I am a product of the European Union project – or the European Community, as it was called when I came to the UK at the age of 19 as a young student from Italy, just after John Major’s government signed the Maastricht treaty…

“With Trump and Putin now both a threat to our security, … we must stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends in the European Union. As Europe rises to defend peace and democracy in the free world, the UK must not be a bystander.”

Perteghella is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for citizens’ rights (chair), hospitality and tourism, Italy, Shakespeare (chair) and visual arts and artists.

Perteghella delivered her maiden speech on 12 September 2024.

In it, she said: “It is the greatest honour of my life to serve the people of Stratford-on-Avon. I am humbled to have been elected to represent the place that I call home, where I live and where I have raised my family, who are here today in the public gallery.

“I am proud to be the first Liberal MP for our constituency in over a century, and the first woman ever to be elected to this role…

“I promise to be their champion, and a strong and unwavering voice for everyone, fighting every day for the fair deal that they deserve.”

She added: “My constituency also has some of the most beautiful waterways in the country…

“Sadly, not enough has been done to tackle river pollution. I thank residents for joining citizens’ science projects to regularly test the water and collect much-needed data on the state of our rivers’ health, so that we can hold the government and water companies to account.”

Before entering parliament, Perteghella was elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor on Stratford-on-Avon District Council in 2020. She stood down as a councillor in 2025.

Perteghella joined the Liberal Democrats after the 2016 Brexit referendum. She could not vote in the referendum at the time as she did not hold British citizenship.

Perteghella later reflected: “This feeling of being (quite literally) disenfranchised was, through engaging with politics itself, transformed into a sense of empowerment, a sense of being able to offer a brighter, fairer alternative to the divisive and toxic narrative by some of our political leaders.”

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.”

Perteghella was endorsed by local groups of the cross-party organisation Compass during the 2024 general election. Compass is a thinktank and campaign group. As part of its “Win as One” campaign in the 2024 election, local Compass groups backed a slate of progressive candidates who had pledged their support for electoral reform. The central aim of the initiative was to elect a “caucus” of MPs who would champion the cause of replacing the first past the post electoral system.

Perteghella is listed as a supporter of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for fair elections – a cross-party group of MPs and peers that campaigns for electoral reform. The group’s stated aims include replacing the first past the post (FPTP) voting system with a form of proportional representation, eliminating “dark money” and “undemocratic influence” from politics, and countering disinformation.

In May 2026, Perteghella 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.”

In December 2024, Perteghella 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.”

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Perteghella 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.

Assisted dying

Perteghella 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).

Social values and conscience issues

Perteghella was one of the 38 Liberal Democrat MPs who voted for the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 at its House of Commons third reading.

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Perteghella voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Perteghella was born in Rome, Italy, in the 1970s. She moved to England in 1993.

She studied English and theatre studies at the University of North London, graduating in 1997. She later obtained a master’s degree then a PhD in literary translation and translation and theatre studies respectively from the University of East Anglia.

Perteghella initially worked as a lecturer and senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University (2006-2012), teaching translation studies. She later worked as a principal tutor at the University of Warwick (2018-2021), lecturing in literary translation studies.

Personal Life

Perteghella is married. She has three children.

Trivia

Perteghella, an Italo-British academic, is an expert in literary and theatre translation. She serves as an MP in William Shakespeare’s birthplace.

In her 2024 maiden speech, Perteghella told the House: “Each year on William’s birthday, the town remembers and celebrates its most famous son, with civic dignitaries and local schoolchildren parading through the historic streets to lay flowers on his tomb in Holy Trinity church.”

She is the first woman, and the first Liberal/Liberal Democrat in over a century, to represent Stratford-on-Avon.

Perteghella is not the first MP of Italian heritage to represent Stratford-on-Avon. That was former secretary of state for war John Profumo.