Layla Moran

Layla Michelle Moran (born 12 September 1982) is a British Liberal Democrat politician serving as the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Development since 2020, and serving as the Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon since 2017.

Moran attended private schools in Brussels, Kingston in Jamaica and Roedean School near Brighton.

She studied Physics at Imperial College London and completed her PGCE at Brunel University London.

She subsequently worked as a maths and physics teacher.

Layla Michelle Moran was born in Hammersmith, London on 12 September 1982, the elder daughter of diplomat James Moran and Randa Moran, a Christian Palestinian from Jerusalem.

Her great-grandfather was the Palestinian writer Wasif Jawhariyyeh, who published extensive memoirs.

Moran describes herself as a British Palestinian.

On her upbringing, Moran said "My Palestinian background has made me interested at a global level. Politics was always at the dinner table; it primed me to engage."

Moran was raised as a cultural Christian and now identifies as a humanist.

Because her father was a diplomat for the European Union and its predecessors, Moran grew up in various countries, including Belgium, Greece, Ethiopia, Jamaica and Jordan.

She attended private schools in Brussels, Kingston in Jamaica and Roedean School in Brighton.

From 2000 to 2003, she studied physics at Imperial College London, and from 2005 to 2007 completed a PGCE at Brunel University London.

From 2003 to 2012, Moran was a maths and physics teacher at the International School of Brussels, and at two schools in London: Queensmead School and Southbank International School.

From 2007 to 2008, she studied for a master's degree in comparative education at the Institute of Education (now the UCL Institute of Education).

Between 2009 and 2013 she worked as a part-time course tutor for Oxford Study Courses, a company that helps International Baccalaureate teachers and students, and from 2013 she was full-time academic manager.

Moran unsuccessfully campaigned as the Liberal Democrat candidate in Battersea at the 2010 general election and in the West Central constituency at the 2012 London Assembly election.

Moran was selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Battersea at the 2010 general election and came in third place.

She also stood as a candidate for the West Central constituency in the 2012 London Assembly election, coming fourth.

She contested Oxford West and Abingdon at the 2015 general election, coming second.

Moran contested Oxford West and Abingdon at the 2015 general election, coming second.

She was selected for the seat again at the 2017 general election and was elected to the House of Commons, defeating Conservative MP Nicola Blackwood, with 26,256 votes (43.7%) and a majority of 816.

She served as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the Department for Education under three leaders from 2017 to 2020, and was spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2019 to 2020.

She was selected for the seat again at the 2017 general election and won the seat from Nicola Blackwood, a Conservative who was then a junior minister for health, with 26,256 votes (43.7%) and a majority of 816.

Moran became the first UK Member of Parliament of Palestinian descent and the first female Liberal Democrat MP from an ethnic minority background.

In June 2017, Moran was named Liberal Democrat spokesperson for education, science and young people in the House of Commons.

That month she used her maiden speech to call for fairer funding for schools, and in July 2017 she spoke out against the closure of all the Sure Start children's centres in Oxfordshire earlier in the year.

Also in July 2017, Moran was jeered at for accusing the Conservatives of underfunding a new scheme to provide 30 hours of free child care for the children of working parents.

Later in 2017, she was appointed a member of the Public Accounts Committee, which is responsible for overseeing government expenditure.

She had been considered a frontrunner to replace Vince Cable as leader, following his announcement in September 2018 that he intended to step down from the post.

After Jo Swinson lost her seat at the 2019 general election, Moran stood to become Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the 2020 leadership election, which she lost to Acting Leader Sir Ed Davey.

In May 2019, Moran announced that, being a relatively new MP, she would not be running in the 2019 Liberal Democrats leadership election.

At the 2019 general election she stood for re-election, increasing her majority to 8,943.

On 31 August 2020, Davey appointed Moran as the Liberal Democrats' Shadow Foreign Secretary and as International Development Spokesperson the following day.

Moran came out as pansexual in 2020 and is believed to be the first UK parliamentarian to do so.

She is the first MP of Palestinian descent.

In March 2020, Moran announced that she would be running in the 2020 leadership election.

Moran finished in second place with 35.6% of the vote, losing to Ed Davey, the acting co-leader.

Moran has also been a leading voice in the call for a full review of the GCSE history curriculum.

She argues that to tackle institutional racism in society students must be taught of Britain's colonial past and the injustices that took place within it.

In 2020 over 250,000 people signed a petition calling for 'Britain's colonial history to be made a compulsory part of the curriculum' which prompted Moran and 30 other cross-party MP's to apply greater pressure on the government to make significant changes to the history curriculum.