Pugh joined the Liberal Party in 1977. Pugh served on Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, representing Birkdale, from 1987 until his election to Parliament. Pugh became leader of the Sefton Liberal Democrats in 1992, and later also became leader of the council, which post he held until his election to parliament in 2001.[7]
Parliamentary career
First elected to the House of Commons in the 2001 general election, in his first parliamentary term, Pugh served on the Transport, Local Government and Regions Select Committee and was Liberal Democrat education spokesperson with responsibility for schools. Following his re-election to Parliament in 2005, he served as shadow spokesperson for Transport and Health, and, subsequent to the election of Nick Clegg as party leader worked with Vince Cable as Shadow Treasury spokesperson. In the 2007 leadership election, Pugh supported Clegg in preference to Chris Huhne.[8]
With the formation of the coalition government in 2010 he was appointed as Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Committee for Health and Social Care, a position he relinquished at the end of 2013 to focus on producing a report examining the social and economic issues facing the North.
Amongst Pugh's campaigning interests was public sector IT, specifically around the role Open Source Software might play. Pugh has argued that the public sector could reduce costs by increasing use of Open Source Software[11] and has accused the BBC of effectively giving Microsoft illegal state aid in only making their iPlayer download service available on Windows computers (at the time).[12]
Pugh has interests in mental health policy.[13] In October 2009, Pugh introduced a private members' bill under the 10-minute rule calling for more local control over the NHS.[14]
Locally in Southport, Pugh was interested in saving local pubs, and also in the drinking culture of the UK.[15] Pugh saw cheap alcohol deals in supermarkets as one of the major problems causing pub closures, and fuelling the culture.[16] He also took the fight for Local Post Offices to 10 Downing Street.[17]
In Transport, Pugh had long campaigned for the reinstatement of the Burscough Curves,[18] and worked with local groups such as the Ormskirk, Preston and Southport Travellers' Association (OPSTA) and the Southport Rail Transport Forum (SRTF) to save services from Southport to Manchester Piccadilly[19]
Pugh supports Amnesty International, with whom he is reported to have had close ties with the Formby & Southport Group over a number of years.[20]
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