Sarah Joanne Dyke[1] was born in 1971 and comes from a Somerset farming family that can be traced back more than 250 years to the local area.[2][3] She was privately educated at Warminster School and studied agricultural and business studies at Harper Adams University.[2]
Local government career
Dyke represented Blackmoor Vale on Somerset Council from the 2022 election, and was the council's lead member for environment and climate change, until October 2024.[4] She chaired the regeneration board for the council.[5][6]
At the July 2023 by-election, Dyke was elected as an MP with 54.6 per cent of the vote and a majority of 11,008, on a swing of 29.0 per cent from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats.[10] On her election, she commented on the absence of her predecessor, saying: "Instead of an absent Conservative MP letting you down, you have an active Lib Dem MP lifting you up."[11] She was sworn in as an MP on 4 September following the parliamentary summer recess,[12] along with Keir Mather and Steve Tuckwell.[13] Mather, from the Labour Party, was elected for Selby and Ainsty, and Tuckwell, from the Conservative Party, was elected for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in two by-elections held on the same day as Dyke's.
Following the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Somerton and Frome was abolished as a parliamentary constituency, to form two new constituencies: Glastonbury and Somerton and Frome and East Somerset, which were contested for the first time at the 2024 general election.[11] Dyke was re-elected to Parliament to represent Glastonbury and Somerton, with 42.7 per cent of the vote and a majority of 6,611 over the second-placed Conservative candidate. The BBC calculated that the changed boundaries made the new seat notionally Conservative, so categorised Dyke's victory as a Liberal Democrat gain from the Conservatives.[14][15]
Personal life
At the time of her election Dyke owned sixty sheep, four dogs and a cat, and ran a second-hand goods business, Vintage Ghetto.[2]
