Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos is a British Labour Party politician and diplomat who served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to the UN, she served as British High Commissioner to Australia. She was created a life peer in 1997, serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council from 2003 to 2007.
The Commonwealth secretary-general, formally the secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations, is the head of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the central body which has served the Commonwealth of Nations since its establishment in 1965, and responsible for representing the Commonwealth publicly. The Commonwealth secretary-general should not be confused with the head of the Commonwealth.
Winifred Ann Taylor, Baroness Taylor of Bolton, is a British politician and life peer who served in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton West from 1974 to 1983, and Dewsbury from 1987 to 2005.
Dawn Primarolo, Baroness Primarolo, is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Bristol South from 1987 until 2015, when she stood down. She was Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families at the Department for Children, Schools and Families from June 2009 to May 2010 and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 2010 to 2015. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2014 Birthday Honours for political service. She was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.
Janet Lee, Baroness Lee of Asheridge, PC LLD HonFRA, known as Jennie Lee, was a Scottish politician. She was a Labour Member of Parliament from a by-election in 1929 until 1931 and then from 1945 to 1970.
His Majesty's Advocate General for Scotland is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, whose duty it is to advise the Crown and His Majesty's Government on Scots law. The Office of the Advocate General for Scotland is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. The position is currently occupied by Catherine Smith KC.
Margaret Patricia Curran, Baroness Curran, is a Scottish Labour Party politician. She served in the House of Commons as the member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow East from 2010 and 2015, and was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland from 2011 until 2015. Curran was previously the member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Baillieston from 1999 to 2011, and held a number of posts within the Scottish Executive, including as Minister for Parliamentary Business, Minister for Social Justice, and Minister for Communities.
Dame Emily Anne Thornberry, Lady Nugee is a British Labour politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005. She served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales from 2021 until the 2024 UK general election, and previously from 2011 to 2014. Thornberry has also served in a number of other senior positions on Labour's front bench, namely as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2020, Shadow First Secretary of State from 2017 to 2020 and Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade from 2020 to 2021.
Kathryn Sloan Clark, Baroness Clark of Kilwinning, is a British politician and life peer who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. A member of the Labour Party, she was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Ayrshire and Arran from 2005 to 2015.
Patricia Elizabeth Rawlings, Baroness Rawlings is a Conservative Party politician and former frontbencher in the House of Lords. She was also a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1989 to 1994. She was Chairman of King's College London Council from 1998 to 2007, and was made a Fellow of King's College (FKC) in 2003. She was President of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations from 2002 to 2007, and President of the British Antique Dealers' Association 2005–2013. She is also a trustee of the Chevening Estate.
Margaret Patricia Hornsby-Smith, Baroness Hornsby-Smith, was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
Walthamstow School for Girls is a single sex girls' secondary school situated in Walthamstow, London. It currently educates 900 girls between the ages of 11–16.
SharmishtaChakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes civil liberties and human rights, from 2003 to 2016. From 2016 to 2020, she served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales.
The representation of women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has been an issue in the politics of the United Kingdom at numerous points in the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally debate centred on whether women should be allowed to vote and stand for election as Members of Parliament. The Parliament Act 1918 gave women over 21 the right to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. The United Kingdom has had three female Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), Theresa May (2016–2019), and Liz Truss (2022). The publication of the book Women in the House by Elizabeth Vallance in 1979 highlighted the under-representation of women in Parliament. In more modern times concerns about the under-representation of women led the Labour Party to introduce and, decades later, abandon all-women short lists, something which was later held to breach discrimination laws.
Ed Miliband became Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition upon being elected to the former post on 25 September 2010. The election was triggered by Gordon Brown's resignation following the party's fall from power at the 2010 general election, which yielded a Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition. Miliband appointed his first Shadow Cabinet in October 2010, following the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet elections. These elections were the last such elections before they were abolished in 2011.
The majority of the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, formerly known as the British Commonwealth, still criminalise sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex and other forms of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Homosexual activity remains a criminal offence in 29 of the 56 sovereign states of the Commonwealth; and legal in only 27.
Doreen Delceita Lawrence, Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon,, is a British Jamaican campaigner and the mother of Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager who was murdered in a racist attack in South East London in 1993. She promoted reforms of the police service and founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust. Lawrence was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to community relations in 2003, and was created a life peer in 2013.
The 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, also known as CHOGM 2015 was the 24th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was held in Malta from 27 to 29 November. Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena handed the position of Commonwealth Chair-in-Office to Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat at the meeting.
Ruth Lauren Smeeth, Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent North from 2015 until 2019. Since 2022 she has been a member of the House of Lords.
Patricia Gibson is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as SNP Attorney General Spokesperson since September 2023. She served as the SNP Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2021 to 2022. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Ayrshire and Arran 2015–2024.
