Pippa Heylings

MP for South Cambridgeshire

Liberal Democrats

Pippa Heylings is the Liberal Democrat MP for South Cambridgeshire, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Heylings received 25,704 votes (46.8%). The Conservative candidate, Chris Carter-Chapman, received 15,063 votes (27.4%), while the Labour candidate, Luke Viner, secured 6,106 votes (11.1%). Heylings was elected with a majority of 10,641 votes.

The South Cambridgeshire constituency is located in the East of England. The seat, created in 1997, was held continuously by the Conservative Party until the Liberal Democrat gain in 2024. Heidi Allen, who represented the seat from 2015 to 2019, left the Conservatives to join the Independent Group (later Change UK).

Heylings’ immediate predecessor as the MP for South Cambridgeshire was Anthony Browne of the Conservative Party. Browne held the seat from 2019 to 2024.

Political Career

Heylings currently serves on the Liberal Democrat frontbench as energy security and net zero spokesperson. She was appointed to this role in September 2024.

In February 2026, Heylings introduced a private members’ bill (PMB) under the 10-minute rule procedure to nominate the UK’s chalk streams as a serial UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site.

In her speech to the House of Commons, Heylings also called for chalk streams to be officially categorised as “irreplaceable habitats” within the national planning policy framework, affording them the same protections as ancient woodlands.

Heylings argued that achieving Natural World Heritage would “help to galvanise protection, public engagement and investment” in the recovery of chalk streams.

She told the commons: “My bill would ensure that we finally give chalk streams the same reverence and protections that we give to our greatest cathedrals or monuments. Our streams and rivers are just as much a part of our national identity and international significance.”

She added: “We are letting our streams be drained dry because of untrammelled growth and allowing water companies and agricultural run-off to create a chemical cocktail of sewage and slurry.”

Heylings has sat as a member of the House of Commons environmental audit committee (2024-2025).

Heylings is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for climate change (vice-chair), global deforestation (co-chair), life sciences and local nature recovery.

Heylings delivered her maiden speech on 26 July 2024 during a debate on making Britain a clean energy superpower.

In it, she said: “It means a great deal to me to make my maiden speech during a debate in which the new government are setting out green energy policies and plans to get us back on track with our climate pledges here at home, so that we can once again contribute on the international stage towards collective global action…

“Government research shows that local climate action would achieve net zero for half the cost of the national approach and deliver three times the financial returns.”

She added: “I am proud that the Liberal Democrats put the NHS and social care at the forefront of our campaign, after years of Conservative chaos and neglect left the NHS on its knees.”

Before entering parliament, Heylings served as a Liberal Democrat councillor on South Cambridgeshire District Council from 2018 to 2024.

Heylings previously stood unsuccessfully as the Liberal Democrat candidate for South East Cambridgeshire in the 2019 general election.

Heylings initially joined the Green Party in 2012 before leaving, reportedly over its “anti-markets stance.”.

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.”

Heylings 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.”

Heylings 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, Heylings 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, Heylings 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

Heylings 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 shortly after the bill’s second reading, Heylings said: “Having agency over the last moments of their life, knowing the option is there is sometimes enough for many to be able to plan together a dignified and caring way to die, bringing everyone around them and having those special moments – with and without acting upon the option.”

Social values and conscience issues

Heylings 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): Heylings 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 Phillippa Frances Heylings in Kingston upon Hull, she studied at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 1986. She obtained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE).

Her mother was a nurse and her father a GP.

Heylings obtained a master’s degree in environmental education from Rhodes University in South Africa in 1997.

Heylings worked internationally with NGOs, governments and charities before entering politics. She spent a total of eight years in East Africa and 15 years in South and Central America and the Caribbean.

She worked at the Ministry of Environment in Zanzibar from 1991 to 1995 and as an environmental education advisor to the Kenya Wildlife Service and African Wildlife Foundation from 1991 to 1996.

Heylings served as executive director of a Latin American NGO focused on sustainable development, and was regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Climate Development Knowledge Network.

In 2013, Heylings founded Talking Transformation Ltd, a consultancy focused on sustainability.