Federal International Relations Committee

Directly Elected Member - Hannah Bettsworth

Hannah Bettsworth joined the Liberal Democrats as a teenager in 2011, and subsequently served in a number of roles within the Scottish party, including Co-Chair of Young Liberals Scotland and as its representative . She stood for the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh Central in the May 2016 elections, and emigrated after the Brexit referendum, eventually arriving in Brussels where she has been since 2019. She works as a Consultant at APCO Worldwide in the area of EU health policy. Previously, she worked for Rare Diseases Europe, a patient advocacy organisation, and as a Schuman Trainee at the European Parliament in the area of EU-UK relations.

Hannah was elected to the Federal International Relations Committee in 2019 and re-elected in 2022, and now serves as the Vice Chair of the FIRC. 

Directly Elected Member - Ann Keeling

Ann Keeling’s career in international development and social justice included posts in Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Caribbean, Belgium, USA and UK, and short-term assignments in around 70 countries. She retired in 2024 after 7 years building a non-profit start up, Women in Global Health, and now focuses on governance and advisory roles. She is Chair of the charity Age International, a trustee on the Boards of MSI Reproductive Choices and CommonAge, and a Member of Liberal Democrat Women executive.

Ann’s career with the UK government included Head of the DFID Policy Division for Europe, Middle East and the Americas; and Head of Gender Equality Policy for the UK Government.  She has also held leadership positions in the UN and non-profit sector, including as CEO of two global non-profit organisations; Country Representative Pakistan for UNFPA (maternal and reproductive health); Director Commonwealth Secretariat; and Senior Poverty and Gender Specialist with UNDP Pakistan. In 2009 Ann founded the NCD (Non-Communicable Diseases) Alliance and as Chair, led the successful campaign for a UN High Level Summit on NCDs. She studied in UK, USA and the People’s University Beijing, China. Her special interests are ageing, women and girls’ rights, global health and multilateralism.

Directly Elected Member - Irina von Wiese

Irina von Wiese was born in Germany, the daughter and granddaughter of Polish and Russian refugees. After completing her law studies in Cologne, Geneva and Munich, she obtained a scholarship to the Harvard Kennedy School where she gained a Masters in Public Administration. At the Kennedy School, Irina met Baroness Shirley Williams, then Professor of Politics at Harvard, who recommended her for an internship at the European Commission and later persuaded her to join the UK Liberal Democrats.

From 1997 to 2019, Irina lived and worked as a lawyer in private and public sector positions in London. During this time, she volunteered for human rights organisations, advising on migration policy and hosting refugees in her home for many years. Having joined the Lib Dems in 1998, Irina stood in several local and regional elections and in 2018 became the parliamentary candidate for Hammersmith.

In 2019, Irina was elected to represent London Lib Dem in the European Parliament. She served as Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee and as a member of the cross-party Working Group on Responsible Business Conduct. The Group's main achievement was the introduction of EU legislation to make human rights due diligence mandatory in global supply chains. Whilst MEP, she was also elected to the Executive Committee of the European Endowment for Democracy, whose task it is to support grassroots civil society initiatives in fragile democracies.

Having lost her seat in the European Parliament after the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, Irina returned to the UK, where she was elected to Southwark Council, currently serving as Vice-Chair of its Overview and Scrunity Committee.

Since 2021, she has been a member of FIRC and Chair of LIBG. Irina's links to Brussels are maintained through an advisory role at FGS Global, where she works on EU law and ESG issues. Irina is also an Affiliate Professor at European Business School; the ESCP; teaching international law and politics; and Honorary President of the European Centre for Populism Studies.

Federal Policy Committee Rep - Phillip Bennion

Dr Phillip Bennion is a former Lib Dem MEP, serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee and its Human Rights subcommittee. He was Convenor of Urgency Resolutions for the Renew Group until he left the European Parliament following Brexit in January 2020. Phillip was group spokesperson on South Asia and nominated Uyghur activist Ilham Tohti for the Sakharov Prize in 2019. 

Phillip was elected to the Bureau of Liberal International as a Vice President at the Sofia Congress of 2022. He chaired the FIRC and led the Party’s delegations to LI and ALDE until January 2023. He remains a member of ALDE Council and currently chairs its policy working group on climate change.

Outside of political life he is a farmer with interests in renewables and is a former agricultural scientist.

English Party Rep - Sean Bennett

Having joined the Liberal Democrats in 2018, Sean has since taken on roles across the party, serving in positions at local, regional, state, and federal levels. He enjoys dual citizenship in both the UK and Germany and studied International Relations and Politics at the University of East Anglia, specialising in EU and European affairs.

In addition to his role as English Party Rep to FIRC, Sean also currently serves as co-international officer of the Young Liberals, regularly leading delegations to LYMEC congresses, as well as sitting as a regional representative on LDEG. 

Having worked as managing editor of Katoikos, a Brussels-based publication by the Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability, Sean is now in the process of becoming an approved Liberal Democrat PPC whilst maintaining a career in corporate content writing and management.

Welsh Party Rep - Gabriela Ferguson

Gabriela joined the Liberal Democrats in 2023, bringing with her extensive political experience and a strong commitment to European and international liberal cooperation. She has a professional background in Engineering and Education and currently works as a Maths Teacher in Cardiff.

Her political engagement began in 2016 through her involvement with USR, Romania’s sister party within the ALDE family. This experience in a pro-European reform movement shaped her enduring commitment to democratic values, international partnership and the strengthening of liberal networks across borders.

Since joining the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Gabriela has been active at both grassroots and policy levels. She has participated in major party conferences, contributed to the local party activity and served as a member of the Welsh Policy Development Committee. She has also been part of the ALDE–Liberal Democrat delegation in Brussels, helping to foster stronger connections between Welsh liberals and their European counterparts. 

In recognition of her contribution and potential, she was awarded the Jenny Randerson Future Politician Award by the Cardiff and The Vale Liberal Democrats.

Gabriela is also a Liberal Democrat candidate for the Senedd elections in May 2026 and serves as the elected Welsh representative on the Federal International Relations Committee. 

In this role, she is committed to ensuring that Welsh perspectives are represented within the party’s international work and to strengthening the Liberal Democrats’ engagement with liberal partners worldwide.

Liberal Democrat European Group (LDEG) Rep - Robert Harrison

Robert is Chair of LDEG and a former Chair of Liberal Democrats in Europe. He was a European Parliamentary candidate on the FDP (German liberal party) list in 2014 and 2019.

Married with two children, Robert works as an intellectual property consultant and attorney in Paris, Munich and London.  He believes passionately in “Making Europe Great Again.”

Co-opted Member - Audrey Eager

Audrey Eager originally hails from Dublin where she has a family background in politics. She previously worked for Fianna Fáil in multiple roles from Press Office Administrator to Assistant to several Senators. She chaired the London branch of Fianna Fáil from 2015 until 2020, acting as spokesperson in public facing events in the Irish community in London.

Audrey joined the Liberal Democrats in 2015 and began working with Catherine Bearder MEP on the Brexit Referendum in 2018. In 2018, she moved across to the Federal Party to become the General Election Planning Manager. Some of her achievements included organizing anti-Brexit marches and advising senior leadership on Anglo-Irish affairs. She attended several ALDE Congresses and represented the Liberal Democrat Chief Executive at meetings of ALDE Secretary-Generals. 

She studied European Business and Languages (French and German) at the National College of Ireland before studying International Relations at a postgraduate level in Dublin City University. Recently, Audrey returned to education and completed a MA in Media, Campaigning and Social Change at the University of Westminster.

Audrey is a committed internationalist believing internationalism intersects with many issues from climate change to the protection of human rights. She also believes that the world order as we have known it since the Second World War is under threat and the values that underpin liberal democracies need reinforcing both domestically and internationally.

Co-oopted Member: Lib Dems in International Development (LDID) Chair - Myles Wickstead

Myles has spent the bulk of his career working in the FCO and Department for International Development, with a strong focus on Africa, including postings in East Africa and as British Ambassador to Ethiopia, Djibouti and the African Union.  He was, from early 2004 to late 2005, Head of Secretariat to the Commission for Africa (CfA). The Commission’s Report ‘Our Common Interest’ formed the basis of the G8 Gleneagles Communique on Africa in 2005. 

Myles has served on many civil society and charity Boards in recent years.  He is Visiting Professor (International Relations) at King’s College London and Honorary Associate Professor at the Strategy and Security Institute, University of Exeter.  He has written extensively on Africa and development. His book ‘Aid and Development: A Brief Introduction’ was published by OUP in June 2015.  He is Chair of Lib Dems in International Development.

Myles has degrees from the Universities of St Andrews (MA First Class Honours) and Oxford (M.Litt), and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by Leeds Beckett University, the University of Ulster and the Open University (where he was also a Visiting Professor) in recognition of his work on Africa and development. In the New Year’s Honours 2006 he was appointed CBE and in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021 he was appointed KCMG.

Honorary Member - Lord John Alderdice

When appointed to the House of Lords in 1996, John Alderdice was one of its youngest ever life appointees. Since then, he has served as an active Liberal Democrat member.

Lord Alderdice was Leader of Northern Ireland's Alliance Party (1987-98) and one of the negotiators of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. He was then the first Speaker of the new Northern Ireland Assembly until 2004 when he was appointed one of four international commissioners charged with overseeing security normalization in Ireland.

John was President of Liberal International (LI) (2005-2009) and is now a Presidente D’Honneur and active on the LI Bureau. From 2010 to 2014, he was Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the House of Lords during the Conservative/Liberal Coalition Government.

From 2013 to 2022, John was the Director of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict (CRIC) at Oxford. He is currently the Director of The Changing Character of War Centre at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and a Founding Chairman of The Concord Foundation.

He has retired from NHS clinical work as a psychiatrist but in addition to his work at Pembroke College, John is a Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and a Professor of Practice at the University of Wales Trinity St David.

Lecturing, writing, and consulting on the psychology of fundamentalism, radicalization & terrorism, John has been recognized with many national and international prizes, honorary degrees, and fellowships for his contributions in the field, including the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.