Helen Flora Clucas OBE (born 9 May 1947), known as Flo Clucas (née Turner), is a British local politician in Cheltenham, England, previously in Liverpool.
Early life Born in Everton, Liverpool, on 9 May 1947,"Mrs Flora Clucas, teacher" in Guide to the House of Commons (Times Newspapers, 1987), p. 128"Helen Flora CLUCAS", Companies House, accessed 11 January 2026 Clucas was educated at Bellerive Girls' Convent School, which was then a direct grant grammar school, left at sixteen, and got a job as a trainee dental nurse. She later returned to education, training as a teacher at St Mary's College of Education, Bangor and the Liverpool Institute of Higher Education.
Career By the early 1980s, Clucas was working as a schoolteacher. At the 1982 and 1983 Liverpool City Council elections, she stood unsuccessfully for the Social Democrats. At the elections in 1986, she was first elected to Liverpool City Council representing the SDP–Liberal Alliance and after that was a councillor for 26 years."Flo Clucas praises husband’s intervention after University of Liverpool degree honour", Liverpool Echo, 15 July 2013, accessed 11 January 2026; at archive.ph By 1987, she was the SDP parliamentary candidate for Halton and was interviewed by the New Statesman, saying that she had "a passionately Tory grandmother who taught her that Labour meant bolshevism", but she had rejected the Tories as "racist and harsh".New Statesman, Volume 113 (1987), p. 10
In 1998, the Liverpool Liberal Democrats took control of the city council and Clucas became its deputy leader, with Mike Storey as leader."JOBS HOPES IN BALANCE", Liverpool Echo, Wednesday 22 July 1998, p. 5 In 1994, she stood for the European Parliament in Merseyside East and Wigan, and in 2004 stood in North West England."2004 Election candidates", UK Office of the European Parliament, archived 4 October 2009 Through the political balance of the Local Government Association, by 2001 she had been appointed to the European Union's Committee of the Regions"Flo CLUCAS", Who's Who in the European Union? Interinstitutional Directory (Brussels: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001), p. 326 and took an active role in it.Official Directory of the European Union 2005 (Brussels: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2005), p. 389Official Directory of the European Union 2009 (Brussels: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2009), pp. 360, 371, 381 She worked on reports on regional and housing policyMarius Guderjan, Tom Verhelst, Local Government in the European Union: Completing the Integration Cycle (Springer Nature,,2021), pp 180–181and in 2008 became the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group,Committee of the Regions: Political Priorities, 2008-2010 (Brussels: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2008), p. 5: "Cllr Flo Clucas, President, ALDE Group, Member of Liverpool City Council (UK)" but ceased to be a member in 2012.
Clucas also stood for parliament unsuccessfully eight times, including the 1997 Wirral South by-election. She also chaired the Liberal Democrat Women and held other party offices.
In May 2013, Clucas decided not to fight the 2014 Liverpool City Council election in her Allerton and Hunts Cross ward, as she was planning to move to Cheltenham to be nearer her family there."Flo Clucas to quit Liverpool council after 26 years", Liverpool Echo, 8 May 2013, accessed 11 January 2026 At that election, her party lost almost all its seats in Liverpool. In May 2014, she held a Liberal Democrat seat in the 2014 Cheltenham Borough Council election.
In the 2024 United Kingdom General Election, Clucas campaigned as a Liberal Democrat in the Swindon North constituency, coming in fifth place with 4.7% of the vote.
Personal life Clucas met her husband, John Clucas at the Cavern Club in the early 1960s. They were married in Liverpool in 1968 and have two sons and four grandchildren. Honours
Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 2005, for services to the community in Merseyside.The London Gazette, 11 June 2005, Supplement 57665, page 9, column 2"Inspiring Women: Flo Clucas", Liberal Democrat Women, 21 March 2021, accessed 11 January 2026 Honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Liverpool, July 2013. Order of the Star of Italy, 2009."Flo Clucas", Little Way Catholic Educational Trust, accessed 11 January 2026
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