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.
Harriet Ruth Harman,Baroness Harman,,is a British politician and solicitor. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for more than 40 years,from 1982 to 2024,making her one of the longest-serving MPs in British history. Harman was MP for Camberwell and Peckham from 1997 to 2024 and MP for Peckham from 1982 to 1997. A member of the Labour Party,she was Deputy Labour Leader and Chair of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2015,and also served as Leader of the Opposition from May to September 2015. She served in various Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet positions. She became only the second longest-serving female MP after Baroness Beckett who served as an MP for more than 45 years. She has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024. Also In 2024 Harman began to Co-host the Sky News podcast Electrical Dysfunction alongside Political Editor Beth Rigby and former Scottish Conservatives Leader Baroness Davidson.
Rosalie Winterton,Baroness Winterton of Doncaster,,is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster Central from 1997 to 2024. She served as a Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons from 2017 to 2024. She became a member of the House of Lords in 2024.
Tessa Ann Vosper Blackstone,Baroness Blackstone,is an English politician and university administrator.
Margaret Patricia Munn served as a Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley from 2001 to 2015. After leaving Parliament,she has served in a variety of roles across the public sector,academia and international bodies.
Angela Evans Smith,Baroness Smith of Basildon is a British politician and life peer serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal since 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative Parties,she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Basildon from 1997 to 2010.
Helena Ann Kennedy,Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws,,is a Scottish barrister,broadcaster,and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College,Oxford,from 2011 to 2018. A Bencher of Gray's Inn,an Honorary Writer to the Signet and the recipient of 42 Honorary Degrees from many universities including those of Glasgow and Edinburgh in recognition of work on women and the law and on widening participation in higher education. She is President of Justice,the law reform think tank,and is also director of the International Bar Association's Institute of Human Rights.
Mary Teresa Goudie,Baroness Goudie is a British politician and life peer,currently sitting for the Labour Party. In 1998,she was made a life peer as Baroness Goudie,of Roundwood in the London Borough of Brent. She is on the board of Vital Voices and is involved in promoting gender equity with both the G8 and G20.
Manzila Pola Uddin,Baroness Uddin is a British non-affiliated life peer and community activist of Bangladeshi descent. In 2009 she was included on The Guardian's Muslim Women Power List for Britain. She previously sat for Labour when,in 2012,Uddin was required to repay £125,349,the largest amount in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal.
Barbara Mary Keeley,Baroness Keeley,is a British Labour Party politician. She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Worsley and Eccles South,previously Worsley,from 2005 to 2024,and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024.
Sayeeda Hussain Warsi,Baroness Warsi,is a British lawyer,politician,and member of the House of Lords who served as co-chairwoman of the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2012. She served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition,first as the Minister without portfolio between 2010 and 2012,then as the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as the Minister of State for Faith and Communities,until her resignation citing her disagreement with the Government's policy relating to the Israel–Gaza conflict in August 2014. In September 2024 Baroness Warsi resigned the Whip and left the Conservative Party.
Dianne Hayter,Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town is a British politician serving as a Member of the House of Lords since 2010. A member of the Labour and Co-operative Party,she was Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords from 2017 to 2021.
Sandip K. Verma,Baroness Verma known until 1977 as Sandip K. Rana,is an Indian-British politician in the United Kingdom. An appointed member of the House of Lords,she is Ministerial Champion for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Overseas,a role who chairs the UN Women's national committee. Verma was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development,from 2015 to 2016.
Kamlesh Kumar Patel,Baron Patel of Bradford,is a member of the House of Lords. Having been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours,he was created a life peer as Baron Patel of Bradford,of Bradford in the County of West Yorkshire on 8 June 2006. He currently sits as a non-affiliated peer,as of 20 March 2018,but has previously sat as a crossbench (2006–2008),Labour (2008–2012) and Labour and Co-operative (2012–2018) peer.
Janet Anne Royall,Baroness Royall of Blaisdon,,is a British Labour Co-operative Party politician. Royall was appointed to the House of Lords in 2004,having stood unsuccessfully to be MEP for The Cotswolds and MP for Ogmore. She was Leader of the House of Lords for the last eighteen months of Gordon Brown's premiership,and currently serves as the Principal of Somerville College,Oxford.
Margaret Theresa Prosser,Baroness Prosser,is a Labour life peer and former trade unionist.
Meral Hussein Ece,Baroness Hussein-Ece,is a British Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. She is the first woman of Turkish Cypriot origin to be a member of either house of Parliament after she was appointed a Liberal Democrat working peer on 28 May 2010. She was the Liberal Democrat Spokeswoman for Equalities from 2015 until 2016,under leader Tim Farron.
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.
Jane Ramsey,Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath is a British politician and health adviser. She chairs the board of trustees of the national charity Young Epilepsy,and was a senior adviser on standards and ethics to the Labour Party and a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Ramsey has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024.
