Anna Lo | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast South | |||||||||||||
In office 7 March 2007 –7 May 2016 | |||||||||||||
Preceded by | Esmond Birnie | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Paula Bradshaw | ||||||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||||||
Born | Anna Manwah Lo 17 June 1950 British Hong Kong | ||||||||||||
Political party | Alliance | ||||||||||||
Spouse(s) | David Watson (divorced) Gavin Millar (divorced) | ||||||||||||
Children | 2 | ||||||||||||
Alma mater | University of Ulster | ||||||||||||
Profession | Social worker | ||||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 盧 曼 華 | ||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 卢曼华 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Anna Manwah Lo MBE (born 17 June 1950) is a former Alliance Party politician in Northern Ireland. [1] She was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast South from 2007 to 2016. She is a former president of the Alliance Party.
Lo was born in North Point,British Hong Kong to Cantonese Chinese parents. [2] She attended Shau Kei Wan East Government Secondary School. [3] She moved to Northern Ireland in 1974 [4] after meeting journalist David Watson. [3]
She spent her early years in the country working for the BBC and the Royal Ulster Constabulary as an interpreter. In 1978,she started an English evening class for Chinese people in Northern Ireland. [5]
Lo was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast South in the 2007 assembly election. [1] She is the first and,to date,only ethnic-minority politician elected at a regional level in Northern Ireland and the first politician born in East Asia elected to any legislative body in the United Kingdom. [6] [7]
Lo stood as an Alliance Party candidate at the 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election and was elected in Belfast South. After her re-election in 2011,Lo was appointed as the chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Environment Committee. [8] She used this role to influence the Local Government Bill. As a result of her amendments,the new Councils have greater levels of openness and transparency as the audio of the main Council meetings is now recorded and Council papers are placed online. She further improved the freedom of the press at the new Councils by ensuring that journalists and the public can use social media during meetings. [9]
She was selected as the Alliance Party's candidate for the Northern Ireland constituency in the 2014 European Parliament election. She won the best ever European election performance for the party. [10]
Lo has been the target of racial abuse by Ulster loyalists [11] [12] and did not stand for re-election as MLA in 2016 as a result. [13]
Lo is a social worker and former chair of the Northern Ireland Chinese Welfare Association. [3] She was awarded an MBE for services to Ethnic Minorities in the 2000 New Year Honours. [11] [14]
Since 2007 Lo has suffered from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and must maintain a vegetarian diet to combat the illness. [15]
Lo has declared her preference for Irish unification. She describes herself as anti-colonial and has said the partition of Ireland was "artificial". [16] Lo also refers to herself as "a socialist and a republican in the international sense". [17]
She expressed her outrage at First Minister Peter Robinson's defence of Pastor James McConnell,who was accused of making Islamophobic remarks. [11] She has stated that she views the Democratic Unionist Party to be racist because of decisions like those. [17]
Lo supported moves to liberalise abortion laws in Northern Ireland and voted to extend the Abortion Act 1967,which already extends the rest of the United Kingdom,to Northern Ireland. [18] [19]
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLAs) and two Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI),or simply Alliance,is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. Following the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election,it was the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly,holding seventeen seats,and broke through by placing third in first preference votes in the 2019 European Parliament election and polling third-highest regionally at the 2019 UK general election. The party won one of the three Northern Ireland seats in the European Parliament,and one seat,North Down,in the House of Commons,the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Naomi Rachel Long MLA is a Northern Irish politician who served as Minister of Justice in the Northern Ireland Executive from January 2020 to October 2022. She has served as leader of the Alliance Party since 2016 and a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East since 2020.
Arlene Isobel Foster,Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee,is a British broadcaster and former politician from Northern Ireland who served as First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2016 to 2017 and from 2020 to 2021 and as Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 2015 to 2021. She was the first woman to hold either position. Foster is a Member of the House of Lords,having previously been a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 2003 to 2021.
The 2007 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday,7 March 2007. It was the third election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. The election saw endorsement of the St Andrews Agreement and the two largest parties,the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin,along with the Alliance Party,increase their support,with falls in support for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
Even before Northern Ireland was established,there were a small number of ethnic minorities living in the area. During the Troubles levels of immigration to Northern Ireland were normally low,nevertheless that does not mean they were insignificant,having contributed to Northern Ireland in economy,business and professional skills. However,there has been an increase since the Good Friday Agreement brought an end to most of the violence.
Jim Wells is a Northern Ireland politician,formerly of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP),who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for South Down from 1998 to 2022;he was one the longest serving MLAs in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Wells is also a former Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly,and was a councillor on Down District Council from 2001 to 2011.
Alex Easton MLA is an Independent Unionist politician from Northern Ireland who has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Down since 2003. A former member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP),Easton left the party in July 2021,following disagreements over the party's leadership. He was educated at Gransha Boys High School and Bangor Technical College. He worked in the accident and emergency department in the Newtownards and then the Ulster Hospital as a clerical officer. He is a member of the Orange Order and the Church of Ireland. He served on the North Down Policing Partnership.
Dawn Purvis is a former Unionist politician in Northern Ireland,who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East from 2007 to 2011. She was previously the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 2007 to 2010.
The 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Thursday,5 May 2016. It was the fifth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. 1,281,595 individuals were registered to vote in the election. Turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 703,744 (54.9%),a decline of less than one percentage point from the previous Assembly Election in 2011,but down 15 percentage points from the first election to the Assembly held in 1998.
Rachel Woods is a Northern Irish academic and Green Party politician who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Down from 2019 to 2022,having replaced the party's former leader,Steven Agnew.
Clare Bailey is a Northern Irish politician who was the Leader of Green Party Northern Ireland from November 2018 to August 2022,and was the Deputy Leader of the Green Party from 2014 to 2017. Bailey was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast South from 2016 to 2022.
Paula Jane Bradshaw is an Alliance Party of Northern Ireland politician. She has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for South Belfast since the 2016 election.
The 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on 5 May 2022. It elected 90 members to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It was the seventh assembly election since the establishment of the assembly in 1998. The election was held three months after the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed due to the resignation of the First Minister,Paul Givan (DUP),in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Andrew Muir is a Northern Irish politician who is an Alliance Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Down. He was appointed as an MLA following incumbent Alliance MLA Stephen Farry's election as MP for North Down in the 2019 UK general election,and elected in the constituency in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election.
Kate Siobhan Nicholl is a Northern Irish politician who is an MLA for Belfast South and who served as the 79th Lord Mayor of Belfast from June 2021 until her election as an MLA in May 2022. She is a member of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. She was the first Lord Mayor in recent history not to be born in the United Kingdom or Ireland.
Sorcha-Lucy Eastwood is an Alliance Party politician who was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly from Lagan Valley in the 2022 Assembly election.
Patricia O'Lynn is a Northern Irish academic,educator,and politician who was an Alliance Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from 2022 to 2023. She was elected as an MLA in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election for North Antrim.
Eóin Tennyson is a Northern Irish Alliance Party politician who has served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Upper Bann since the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election.
Nuala McAllister is a Northern Irish politician who is an Alliance Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). She was elected as an MLA in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election for Belfast North.
I am a socialist and a republican in the international sense," she said. "I don't believe in the monarchy or in inherited wealth, privilege and position. But when I met the Queen I was respectful because she is the head of State.