Paul Kohler

MP for Wimbledon

Liberal Democrats

Paul Kohler is the Liberal Democrat MP for Wimbledon, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Kohler received 24,790 votes, representing 45.1% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Danielle Dunfield-Prayero, received 12,180 votes (22.2%), while the Labour candidate, Eleanor Stringer, secured 11,733 votes (21.3%). Kohler was duly elected with a majority of 12,610.

The Wimbledon constituency is located in South West London. The seat, created in 1885, generally elected Conservative MPs – with exceptions during Labour landslide years (1945-1950 and 1997-2005). The Liberal Democrats won the seat for the first time in 2024.

Kohler’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Wimbledon was Stephen Hammond of the Conservative Party. Hammond, who stood down at the 2024 election, was first elected to the seat in 2005.

Political Career

Kohler currently serves on the Liberal Democrat frontbench as Northern Ireland spokesperson. He was appointed to this role in September 2025. Earlier in this parliament, he served as transport spokesperson from September 2024 to September 2025.

Kohler is a member of the House of Commons Northern Ireland affairs select committee (since November 2025) – the committee responsible for scrutinising the policy, administration and spending of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and its associated public bodies.

Kohler is also a member of the House of Commons home affairs select committee (since October 2024) – the committee responsible for scrutinising the work of the Home Office and its associated bodies. It examines government policy, spending and the law in areas including immigration, security and policing.

Kohler is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for intergenerational inquiry (chair) and the night time economy (chair).

Kohler delivered his maiden speech on 23 July 2024 during a debate on immigration and home affairs.

In it, he said: “As an academic lawyer, I will do all I can to defend the rule of law, which is under threat from our badly neglected and crumbling civil and criminal justice system. In particular, our prisons and probation service are in crisis.”

He added: “We need to explore more effective alternatives to prison, including house arrests and curfews, while putting the victim at the heart of the criminal justice system by fully embracing restorative justice – something that I know from personal experience can have a transformative effect on victims, as it did on my family, with the added bonus of dramatically curtailing rates of recidivism.”

Before his election to parliament, Kohler was elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor on Merton London Borough Council in 2018. Kohler stepped down from this role in 2026.

Kohler previously stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Wimbledon 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.”

Kohler 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 December 2024, Kohler 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, Kohler 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

Kohler voted against 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).

Kohler was one of 15 Liberal Democrats to vote against the assisted dying bill at third reading.

In a statement issued shortly after the bill’s second reading debate, Kohler said: “As someone who has always supported the broad principle of assisted dying, I expected to vote in favour of the bill.

“However, when I stood for election this July, I made clear to anyone who asked, that I had not made a final decision as to how I would vote as your MP on any legislation that might subsequently be proposed.”

He added: “As the day proceeded, I became firmly of the view that to offer terminal patients the choice of assisted dying, where insufficient palliative care is available and doctors are often reluctant to prescribe sufficient painkillers to alleviate pain, is no real choice at all.

“Many terminal patients in such circumstances will understandably choose death, not because they want to die, but because they know the state is unlikely to do enough to alleviate their future pain.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Kohler 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 on 15 March 1959 in Epsom, Surrey, Kohler studied law at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating in 1986.

Kohler pursued a career in academia. He taught at University College London (UCL) and New College, Oxford, before becoming a senior lecturer at SOAS University of London.

Kohler served as head of the School of Laws at SOAS from 2012 to 2016.

In 2014, Kohler was a victim of a violent assault. At the time, Kohler said he only survived because officers were able to reach his home within eight minutes. The attack left Kohler with severe facial injuries. He suffered a fractured eye socket, broken nose and severe internal bleeding in the attack.

Kohler subsequently campaigned against the closure of police stations across London. He launched a judicial review against the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) in 2018.

In January 2025, Kohler told the Standard: “I entered politics, active politics, after an attack on my home was misused by others to promote their anti-EU, anti-immigrant agenda.

“My life was saved by two brave police officers from Wimbledon police station. As a family, our lives were transformed by a restorative justice session organised by the charity Why Me, where we met one of our four attackers in prison.”