British Liberal Democrat politician
Rachel Clare Gilmour (formerly Oliver; born 13 October 1964) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Tiverton and Minehead since 2024.
Early life.
Gilmour is the daughter of the former England international rugby player David Wrench. Wrench later became leader of Wellington Town Council and was a member of the Conservative Party. Gilmour grew up on the Somerset–Devon border and attended local schools including St John's Primary School in Wellington. She was then privately educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she joined the Liberal Party aged 17.
She studied law at SOAS University of London and English literature at King's College London.
Career.
After a stint as an English Lecturer at Somerset College of Arts &amp; Technology in Taunton, Gilmour began her career in corporate communications and public affairs. Having worked for national and international NGOs, she was appointed Director of Communications at the National Farmers' Union, becoming the first woman to join their board in 100 years. She went on to be Head of Strategy at the Environment Agency.
Most recently she was employed as Director of Communications for Pangea 21, a group of health tech start-ups.
Gilmour contested Nottingham North as the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate in the 1997 general election, coming third. She contested Totnes in 2001, coming second behind Conservative incumbent Anthony Steen. The UKIP candidate in this election was Craig Mackinlay, later the Conservative MP for South Thanet. She fought both of these elections under her previous name of Rachel Oliver.
In 2015, she stood in Taunton Deane to succeed fellow Liberal Democrat Jeremy Browne, but was defeated by Conservative candidate Rebecca Pow in an election which saw the Liberal Democrats reduced to just eight parliamentary seats nationally.
She was previously a member of Taunton Deane Borough Council and currently represents the Clare &amp; Shuttern ward on Mid Devon District Council.
At the 2024 general election, Gilmour stood in the newly created seat of Tiverton and Minehead. Her Conservative opponent, Ian Liddell-Grainger, was the incumbent MP for the constituency of Bridgwater and West Somerset, which was abolished at this election and partially replaced by Tiverton and Minehead. On 4 July, Gilmour won the seat with a majority of 3,507 votes (7.4% of the vote) over Liddell-Grainger. This was in keeping with the national election results, which were the best for the Liberal Democrats and the worst for the Conservatives in modern history.
On 14th January 2025, she referred herself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after it had emerged she had appointed her son as one of her staff team.
In January 2025, she claimed that Butlin's was 'partly' to blame for issues around social mobility in her constituency.
Personal life.
She lives in Bampton with her husband, Patrick, a corporate lawyer. They have three sons and a daughter. They share their home and garden with two dogs, three cats and twenty two rescue chickens.
References.
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