Early candidacies Kramer contested
Dulwich and West Norwood in
1997, coming third behind the
Labour incumbent
Tessa Jowell and the
Conservative candidate Roger W. Gough. In 1999, she was on the Liberal Democrat party list for the
London constituency at the European Parliament elections, though she was not elected. The following year, she stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the
election for
Mayor of London against
Ken Livingstone, and other candidates. She finished fourth with 11.9% of the vote. In March 2003, she again sought the party's nomination for Mayor of London, but was beaten in a three-way race for the candidacy by
Simon Hughes.
Member of Parliament In September 2003, Kramer was selected as the
prospective parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Richmond Park in South West London, following the decision of the sitting Liberal Democrat MP,
Jenny Tonge, to stand down at the next election. Kramer was then elected as the MP for the constituency at the
May 2005 general election. Kramer was appointed as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on International Development by the new party leader,
Sir Menzies Campbell, in March 2006. She succeeded
Ed Davey as Trade & Industry spokesperson nine months later. In 2007 she became the party's Transport spokesperson. When Nick Clegg was appointed as Liberal Democrat Leader, Kramer received a demotion to a spokesperson for the Cabinet Office. She later regained the Transport post in a subsequent reshuffle. In January 2009, she resigned from the party's front bench to defend her seat from a renewed Conservative campaign to regain Richmond. Kramer was one of the contributors to the
Orange Book (2004). Kramer was involved in a breach of electoral rules when her son made four monthly donations of £332 between December 2008 and March 2009 to her campaign while not on the electoral register. A Liberal Democrat spokeswoman said to the press Jonathan Kramer was unaware his name had fallen off the register, and that the money was paid back once the error was pointed out.
Voting record and positions Kramer rarely rebelled against Liberal Democrat policy in terms of voting. She has voted against the introduction of national ID cards, against the renewal of the Trident defence system, and for an elected
House of Lords. Kramer took a keen interest in London transport, in particular regarding high-speed rail and the
Thameslink Programme. Despite her initial enthusiasm about the opening of
High Speed 1, she became more mixed on the issue, citing in 2007 during a debate with a number of Labour MPs that "significant numbers of business customers in south-west London have been happy to make the easy journey by train to
Waterloo, but that they simply jump in a cab to go to Gatwick or Heathrow. It is unfortunate, but their passenger business will largely be lost, as the journey to
St Pancras will be more than an hour longer than the current journey to Waterloo." Kramer's district of Richmond Park is situated in an area served by
South West Trains which provides service into Waterloo station rather than the newly opened
St Pancras International station which replaced the former as the London terminus for Eurostar; she later argued for possible use of both stations. Kramer voiced her opposition to the expansion of
Heathrow Airport and submitted an early day motion that gained support from 54 MPs, 38 from her own party and 16 from the
Labour Party. As early as her maiden speech, she opposed the airport's expansion. This opposition was one of her key goals as a Member of Parliament. On civil rights, Kramer voted for amendments to the
Equality Act 2006 that would ban discrimination based on
sexual orientation and gender reassignment. Along with all other Liberal Democrat MPs, she voted to allow
Gurkhas permanent settlement rights in the United Kingdom, overriding previous legislation which denied such rights. The principal cause stated was to coordinate opposition to further development of
Heathrow Airport, whose incoming aircraft routinely overfly the constituency on their landing approach to the airport.
After 2010 In 2010, Kramer faced a challenge from Conservative
Zac Goldsmith, defending a notional majority of 3,649 (7.2%). with Goldsmith emerging victorious by 4,091 votes. In November 2010, she lost the election to become President of the Liberal Democrats to
Tim Farron by 47% of votes to Farron's 53%. Later in the month, it was announced that she would be made a
life peer, and was created
Baroness Kramer, of
Richmond Park in the
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on 22 December 2010. On 4 October 2012, she appeared as a panellist on BBC's Question Time. In October 2013, Kramer was appointed Minister of State at the
Department for Transport. which she held until the May 2015 General Election. Following the 2015 election she was appointed as the
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson under
Tim Farron. ==Personal life==