Baroness Maddock was made President of the Liberal Democrats in September, the first woman to hold the post. Her role is to strengthen the internal democracy of the party. Diana Maddock was a councillor on Southampton City Council from 1984 to 1993 and was leader of the Liberal Democrat group. She also worked as a regional organiser for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Liberal Democrats. She became MP of Christchurch in a by-election in 1993 but lost the seat at the next General Election. During that time she was Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on Housing, Women's Issues and Family Planning and sponsored a Private Members' Bill to give local councils a legal duty to promote household energy saving. Before joining the party she was a teacher and lived in Stockholm for three years as part of her husband's job. They have two daughters.