Marie Goldman is the Liberal Democrat MP for Chelmsford, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Goldman received 20,214 votes (39.9%). The Conservative candidate, Vicky Ford, received 15,461 votes (30.5%), while the Reform UK candidate, Darren Ingrouille, secured 6,754 votes (13.3%). Goldman was elected with a majority of 4,753 votes.

The Chelmsford constituency is located in Essex, East of England. A constituency of this name existed from 1885 to 1997, before being re-established in 2010. The seat had been held continuously by the Conservative Party since 1950 until the Liberal Democrat gain in 2024.

Goldman’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Chelmsford was Vicky Ford of the Conservative Party. Ford represented the seat from 2019 to 2024.

Political Career

Goldman currently serves on the Liberal Democrat frontbench as women and equalities spokesperson. She was appointed to this role in September 2025.

Goldman is also a member of the House of Commons administration committee (since January 2026) – the committee responsible for overseeing the internal running of the House and the services provided to its members and their staff. Its primary role is to ensure that the facilities and administrative support on the parliamentary estate are effective, efficient, and meet the needs of a modern legislature.

Goldman previously served as shadow leader of the House of Commons from September 2024 to September 2025. In this capacity, she served on the modernisation committee across the same period.

In March 2026, Goldman championed an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to mandate that if there was a “reasonable suspicion that a death by suicide has been preceded by a history of domestic abuse”, the police must investigate that death using the same protocols applied to a potential homicide. This shift is intended to stop such cases from going unreported.

Goldman argued that the current legal framework was “simply not doing enough to protect women” and that making these investigations mandatory was the only way to “deliver justice for victims and their loved ones” who were driven to take their own lives by abusive partners.

She stated: “We urgently need to update the law, so that police forces investigate every suicide as a potential homicide where there is a history of domestic abuse…

“Only by making this mandatory will police be able to collect and preserve the best evidence possible to deliver justice for victims and their loved ones.”

In November 2025, Goldman was one of 34 cross-party MPs and peers who signed a letter to Ofcom demanding an investigation into the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The letter, led by Joani Reid, chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on antisemitism, called on the regulator to determine whether the platform was in breach of its legal duties under the Online Safety Act following a reported surge in antisemitic content and calls for violence against Jews on X.

Goldman is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for dietary health (chair) and East of England.

Goldman delivered her maiden speech on 4 September 2024 during a debate on the Budget Responsibility Bill.

In it, she said: “I am the first in my family to go to university and the first elected to any public office – let alone as a member of this House…

“A critical part of my success is owed to the amazing state school education that I received, the dedicated and inspirational teachers I was lucky enough to be taught by… and the extracurricular activities… that broadened my horizons and lifted my eyes to the stars.”

She added: “Train travel in this country is expensive and complicated. Ultimately, I do not believe that the public care too much about who runs the trains; they care more about how much rail travel costs them, whether the trains run on time and whether they are comfortable and efficient.”

“The whole system needs to be simplified… Without an economy that can support investment in new rail stations or the redevelopment of junctions… such projects are in danger of never happening at all.”

Before entering parliament, Goldman was first elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor on Chelmsford City Council in 2019. She served as deputy leader of Chelmsford City Council from 2019 to 2025.

Goldman previously stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Chelmsford in the 2019 general election.

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.”

Goldman is a member of the Green Liberal Democrats, an official environmental group within the Liberal Democrats. It aims to “promote a green approach to policy formation within the Liberal Democrats” and “develop links with the wider green movement.” The grouping, formed in 1977 as a faction within the Liberal Party, is “committed to a net-zero and nature positive future and driving ambition across the national party and in local governance.”

Goldman is listed as a member 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 December 2024, Goldman 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, Goldman 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.

Welfare

Goldman was a fierce critic of the government’s winter fuel cuts in autumn 2024.

At the time, she told the BBC: “It feels like this is a really poorly thought through policy being brought in very, very quickly without any sort of safety net for people who will be very severely affected by this.”

Assisted dying

Goldman 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).

In a statement issued after the bill’s second reading, Goldman said: “I don’t consider that the need to invest in palliative care and the argument for this bill are mutually exclusive. I believe we should be doing both at the same time and it really shouldn’t be beyond governments to do so – after all, there are many, many other bills and changes being proposed at the moment, and we’re constantly having shake-ups and reorganisations of the NHS.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Goldman 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

Born Marie Clare Goldman, she attended Exeter College in Devon and graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2000 with a degree in French and management Studies.

She runs a small construction business in Chelmsford with her husband.

Personal Life

Goldman has lived in Chelmsford for over two decades.

She is married to Simon Goldman, who has also served as a Liberal Democrat councillor on Chelmsford City Council. They have children.

Trivia

Goldman is the first non-Conservative MP to represent Chelmsford since Ernest Millington lost the seat in 1950. Millington was elected to parliament as for the Common Wealth Party, but subsequently joined Labour.