On This Day

13 October 1964

Happy birthday to Rachel Gilmour, Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Minehead

Educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College and the University of London, Gilmore worked in corporate communications, serving as director of communications for the NFU and head of strategy at the Environment Agency. Gilmore joined the Liberal Party while at school and fought her first general election in 1997 at Nottingham South. At a local level she served as a councillor on Taunton Deane Borough Council and later Mid Devon District Council. In the disastrous 2015 election she was selected to contest Taunton Dean in place of retiring Liberal Democrat MP Jeremy Browne but lost to the Conservatives. Selected to contest the new seat of Tiverton and Minehead for the 2024 election, she defeated the former Tory MP Ian Liddle-Grainger with a majority of 3,507. She has been a member of the Public Accounts Committee since October 2024.