Guantanamo prisoner Shaker Aamer and his family are my constituents as MEP. In that capacity and as a human rights campaigner who helped establish the European Parliament inquiry into "extraordinary rendition", I am outraged that Shaker has been incarcerated in Guantanamo for a decade in total denial of due process.

Dear Friends,

Byelection successes and Sutton's Worcester Park

We are doing pretty well in byelections, and you can see in this article in the Independent, we made three gains in the past month alone, two of these landslide gains from the Conservatives.

London has just added to that success, with great hard work paying off as the LibDems sailed to victory in the Worcester Park byelection. Candidate Roger Roberts and the team secured a convincing hold against a strong Tory challenge, and there was even a 3% swing to us. It has been a great team effort from across the region. Here I am pictured with Roger, Sutton MP Paul Burstow and others from the local team. The message is of course that where we work, we win! On which note, I will be in Brent for the Dollis Hill byelection on Sunday as well as in Richmond on Saturday campaigning on crime.

London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford has welcomed the endorsement by a majority of MEPs for the European Parliament to end the 'travelling circus' to Strasbourg in favour of one permanent seat, which would be in Brussels.

Voting on EU budget guidelines for 2013, MEPs also decided to freeze their own allowances until mid-2014 and cap their travel budget at its present level in line with their demand that all EU institutions cut their administrative spending.

Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman and London MEP Sarah Ludford has welcomed the adoption by the European Parliament today of a resolution condemning the controversial new Hungarian constitution.

Sarah Ludford commented:

"The European Commission and Hungary's fellow EU governments have been slow to act on the blatant erosion of civil liberties in Hungary taking place under Viktor Orban and his right-wing ruling party. They have twiddled their thumbs as Orban misused a two-thirds parliamentary majority in parliament to restrict dissenting journalism, suborn independent bodies and entrench discrimination and party hegemony through a highly partisan constitution."

London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford is calling for the European Parliament to freeze MEPs' allowances until the end of the legislature in 2014 as well as to seek freezes on travel costs and administrative spending in all EU institutions.

Commenting ahead of tomorrow's vote in the European Parliament on the 'guidelines' for the EU's budget in 2013, Sarah Ludford commented:

Commenting on tomorrow's 10-year anniversary of Shaker Aamer's detention without charge in Guantanamo, London MEP and vice-chair of the European Parliament's delegation to the US Sarah Ludford said:

"The continued existence of Guantanamo is a stain on the record and reputation of President Obama, a lawyer whose attachment to human rights was celebrated early in his Presidency by the Nobel peace prize award. It is an outrage that my constituent Shaker Aamer remains incarcerated in Guantanamo and separated from his family in London a decade after he was sold by bounty-hunters and having been charged with no crime."

Dear friends,

Abu Qatada and the European Court of Human Rights

Theresa May is of course fully entitled to appeal to the 'Grand Chamber' of the European Court of Human Rights against the judgment of a division of the court that Abu Qatada cannot be deported to Jordan because of fears that evidence obtained through torture might be used in a trial. If she can convince the Court that there is a real guarantee that would not happen and that he would have a truly fair trial, then I would be as delighted as anyone to see the back of this man.

London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford is reminding people about the existence and importance of the European emergency number 112.

112 is the emergency number common to all 27 EU countries, including the UK, and can be used to connect to ambulance fire or police services. 74% of Europeans are still unaware of the number, despite the fact it has been in existence for more than 20 years.

Sarah Ludford has welcomed the launch of a campaign by The Times to 'save our cyclists' while noting all the work that Liberal Democrats are already doing to make cycling less dangerous. She has been an active campaigner on road and especially cyclist safety since she was an Islington Councillor, and is supportive of the 'See me, Save me' campaign which was started by the mother of Eilidh Cairns who was tragically killed when she was knocked off her bike by a lorry on her way to work in London 2009.