Earlier today, we told you about the ten new Liberal Democrat peers. We thought you might like to know a little more about them.

Cathy Bakewell

Cathy was first elected to Somerset County Council in 1993 and has since gained expertise in a number of fields: fire and rescue, policing, equalities, safeguarding children and further education. Her appointment bolsters our local government experience in the Lords. She also served on Ruth Kelly’s 2007 commission which looked at the barriers to people becoming councillors. She may have similar ideas about addressing our under-representation of women in other areas.

Olly Grender

Olly Grender’s career has spanned the world of politics, government and the voluntary and corporate sectors.  She has run communications operations and campaigns in all four, advising or working for a vast range of organisations. She has an extensive knowledge of devising and implementing communications strategies in a political environment. She was the Party’s Communications Director in Paddy Ashdown’s era and in the months after the Coalition was formed, she was a familiar place as a Liberal Democrat commentator. She then went into Downing Street for a year as Nick Clegg’s chief communications person.

She worked for Shelter and is still passionate about tackling homelessness and in dealing with bullying. She also has personal experience of infertility, having undergone IVF 8 years ago.

Christine Humphreys

Former Welsh Assembly member Christine Humphreys is President of the Welsh Liberal Democrats and she is also a former councillor.

In the Welsh Assembly she was the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on post-16 education, a member of the Standards Committee and a trustee of the Assembly Members’ Pension Scheme. She made numerous media appearances giving individual interviews and participating in panel debates in both Welsh and English.

Kirsty Williams praised her:

She has had dedicated her life to serving others, either through politics or teaching. She has also played an important role, as party president, in developing and mentoring young female candidates during the Westminster, Assembly and council elections.

Zahida Manzoor

Trained as a nurse and midwife, Zahida’s career has taken her in 3 different directions, from serving on health authorities making strategic decisions on health care, to being Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales. She’s also a former deputy chair of the Commission for Racial Equality and is the patron of the Ethnic Minority Disability Association. She’s also from Bradford, so can give the north of England an added presence in Parliament.

Brian Paddick

Brian Paddick has twice been this party’s London Mayoral candidate and is frequently featured in the media as an authority on policing matters, having spent 30 years as a Police Officer, and being the highest ranking openly gay officer in the UK, as Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Since leaving the police, he has been involved with charities helping young offenders and working with young people.

He was also, famously, a contestant on I’m a Celebrity get me out of here in 2008.

James Palumbo

James Palumbo is best known as the c0-founder of Ministry of Sound which makes him probably our coolest member of the House of Lords. He also has an interest in drug culture, having worked with the then Home Office Minister on the Misuse of Drugs Act 1994. He has also been involved in youth initiatives such as persuading young people to use their votes.

Jeremy Purvis

Jeremy Purvis was MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale from 2003-11. He was also the brains behind the Scottish Party’s manifesto in 2011. His radical ideas for Scottish Water and regional development banks were outshone by Coalition woes and he’s seen in Scotland as a very wise head. He also has an interest in assisted dying, having introduced a bill on the subject in 2005.

Willie Rennie has given him a new role within the party on his appointment, saying:

I am delighted Jeremy has been persuaded to return to the frontline of Scottish politics. He is somebody of great talent and ability who has much more to offer the party and the country. As a leading MSP in Holyrood, and more recently with his pioneering work for Devo Plus, Jeremy has shown he is bursting with ideas and has persuasive skills to match the best.

“As one of the youngest people ever appointed to the House of Lords he will also add a new dimension to our team for Scotland. I am also particularly pleased Jeremy has agreed to act as my policy and strategy adviser. He will very much strengthen our offering to the people of Scotland through the referendum and into the next Scottish Parliament.

Alison Suttie

Our second Scottish (and Borders, come to that) is Alison Suttie. She famously staffed the Coalition negotiations in 2010, taking notes in Russian as she told Helen Duffett in AD LIB earlier this year. She worked at the European Parliament, has experience as a campaigner and running a General Election campaign as she did for us in 2010. She then spent time inside the corridors of power as Nick Clegg’s Deputy Chief of Staff when he was first Deputy Prime Minister.

Rumi Verjee

Rumi Verjee, a Ugandan Asian, is a British entrepreneur and philanthropist; businesses he created now employ over 20,000 people in the UK. After bringing Domino’s to the UK, Rumi also oversaw the development of the Brompton Hospital site. Rumi is the owner of the world-renowned china shop, Thomas Goode & Company, in Mayfair.

Rumi established The Rumi Foundation in 2006. The initiatives it supports are diverse, but all share the same goal of humanitarian work through, education, innovation and knowledge building. Amongst other programmes, the Foundation is working with The Clinton Foundation to provide new schools for 3000 children in Uganda. The Foundation recently helped launch the Canadian charity ‘Free the Children’ in the UK which is aimed at helping today’s youth become move active citizens in their local communities and globally.

He has been involved in the party for several years and supports candidates through the leadership programme.

Sir Ian Wrigglesworth

Elected as Labour MP for Stockton South in 1974, Ian was a founder member of the SDP and was the first ever President of the Liberal Democrats in 1988. He is currently party treasurer.

He lost his seat in 1987 and since has been involved in business and is currently Chairman of the Durham Group, an investment company based in Gateshead. Until August 2012 he was chairman of the Port of Tyne, which he had been a director of since 2003. From 1995 to 2008 he was executive chairman of UK Land Estates, which became one of the biggest property development and investment companies in the north-east.