Martin Callanan was born in Newcastle, and has been MEP for the north east since 1999.  An engineer by profession, he served on Tyne and Wear County Council and Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council, and stood three times for the House of Commons in local constituencies, before being elected three times for the European Parliament. He is Conservative spokesman on the Environment and is Chief Whip for the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament.

Lord Maclennan of Rogart was born in Glasgow was MP for Caithness and Sutherland from 1966 to 1997.   A minister in the 1974-9 Labour Government, in 1981 he joined the SDP with Shirley Williams, David Owen, and Roy Jenkins, becoming its leader shortly before it merged with the Liberal Party and became the Liberal Democrats in 1988.  A frontbench spokesperson throughout his Lords career, Lord Maclennan was President of the Liberal Democrats from 1994-1998. 

Chris Mullin was born in Chelmsford and was MP for Sunderland from 1987 until standing down at this election.  A journalist before entering parliament, he was twice Chair of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, and was appointed by Tony Blair as a minister in three departments between 1999 and 2005.  He has recently published the first of three volumes of political diaries, A View from the Foothills, and is author of A Very British Coup.