Wera Benedicta Hobhouse (née von Reden, 8 February 1960) is a British-German Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath since 2017.

Hobhouse has previously served on the Liberal Democrat front bench as spokesperson for Communities and Local Government, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Transport, Energy and Climate Change, and as the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons.

She then moved back to Germany, completing a master's degree in history and fine art at the Free University of Berlin.

Her political career in Rochdale was defined by the Spodden Valley asbestos controversy, which was the proposed development of 650 homes on an asbestos-contaminated site.

[12][13] The Liberal Democrats assumed majority control of Rochdale Council in 2007; Hobhouse served as the cabinet member for the environment between 2006 and 2009 and chaired the health scrutiny committee from 2009 to 2010.

[22] Hobhouse stood on a pro-European platform which emphasised housing, education, congestion and pollution concerns, as well as opposition to the incumbent Conservative MP's plans to link the A46 and A36 roads together.

[36] A government bill to outlaw upskirting was introduced to the House of Commons on 21 June 2018;[37][38] and passed its second reading on 3 July 2018 to become the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019.

Defending her actions, Hobhouse said that she had saved the taxpayer £40,000 by taking over the lease from Bath's previous MP and that she required the printer for her constituency letters.

[43] This became the policy position of the Liberal Democrats at their conference in September 2019, where Hobhouse gave a keynote speech on tackling the climate crisis.

[44] Among the proposals that she has promoted to meet these targets, Hobhouse has called for a permanent ban on fracking, for increased investment in renewable energy, for greater powers to be given to local authorities to cut emissions, and for all airport expansion to be halted until a replacement can be found for jet fuel.

[45][46] In February 2020, Hobhouse announced that she would stand in the 2020 Liberal Democrats leadership election, before withdrawing in June and endorsing Layla Moran.

[49] She supports proportional representation for UK elections and claims that the coalition government's failure to secure electoral reform was its "biggest disappointment".