Michaelina "Mikey" Argy [1] MBE (born 1962) is an English thalidomide survivor and activist. [2] [3] She is a past chair of the National Advisory Committee of the Thalidomide Trust, the organisation through which British thalidomide survivors receive financial support, [1] and is still involved in the media activities of the trust. [4]
She attended Michael Hall, a Steiner school in Ashdown Forest, Sussex. [5] She has two daughters, including TikTok content creator Madeline Argy. [3]
She stood as a candidate for the Independence from Europe party in the 2015 European Parliament election in South East England, but was not elected. [6]
She was appointed MBE in the 2015 Birthday Honours. She was described as "Campaigner and Member, National Advisory Council, Thalidomide Trust", and the honour was "For services to Thalidomide Survivors". [7] [8]
Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston is a British-German politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1997 to 2017. A former member of the Labour Party, she now sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.
Caroline Patricia Lucas is a British politician who has twice led the Green Party of England and Wales and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion since the 2010 general election. She was re-elected in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections, increasing her majority each time.
The English Democrats is a right-wing to far-right, English nationalist political party active in England. Being a minor party, it currently has no elected representatives at any level of UK government.
Linda McAvan is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 1998, when she was first elected in a by-election following the resignation of Norman West. She served until her resignation on 19 April 2019.
Fiona Jane Hall MBE is a British politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North East England. She served as leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014. She was elected to the European Parliament in 2004, and re-elected in 2009, coming in third behind Labour and Conservative candidates with 17% of the vote, the highest of any UK Liberal Democrat candidate.
Jeff Smith is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Withington since 2015, and the Shadow Minister for Clean Power and Consumers since September 2023. A former Manchester City Councillor, he served as a senior opposition whip in Parliament from 2015 to 2021, and Shadow Minister for Local Government from May to 4 December 2021.
Anna Manwah Lo is a former Alliance Party politician in Northern Ireland. 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.
Caroline Valerie Pidgeon is a British politician serving as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the London Assembly since 2018, and a Londonwide Member of the London Assembly (AM) since 2008.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the use of thalidomide in 46 countries by women who were pregnant or who subsequently became pregnant resulted in the "biggest man-made medical disaster ever," with more than 10,000 children born with a range of severe deformities, such as phocomelia, as well as thousands of miscarriages.
The mayor of Tower Hamlets is the directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council in east London, England. The first election for this position occurred on 21 October 2010, taking on the executive function of the borough council. The position is different from the previous largely ceremonial, annually appointed mayors of Tower Hamlets, who became known as the 'Chair of Council' after the first election and are now known as the 'Speaker of Council'. The second election was held on 22 May 2014, the same day as the Tower Hamlets Council election, other United Kingdom local elections, and European Parliament elections, but the election result was declared void by the election court. A by-election was held on 11 June 2015.
Murray Rankin is a Canadian lawyer, politician and public law expert who serves as British Columbia's Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. A member of the New Democratic Party, Rankin represents the riding of Oak Bay-Gordon Head in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Rankin previously served as the federal Member of Parliament for Victoria from 2012 to 2019, with senior roles including Justice and Attorney General Critic, Health Critic, and NDP House Leader. From 2019 to 2020, Rankin was head of Canada's National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA), overseeing all national security and intelligence activities carried out by the Government of Canada. Previously, he was a professor of law at the University of Victoria, where he taught environmental and administrative law.
Phyllis Akua Opoku-Gyimah, also known as Lady Phyll, is a British political activist known for her work for racial, gender and LGBT+ equality. She is Co-Founder and Chief Executive of UK Black Pride and former executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust.
Lynn Boylan is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has served as a Senator for the Agricultural Panel since April 2020. She previously served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency from 2014 to 2019.
Andrew Iain Lewer is a British Conservative Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Northampton South since the 2017 general election. He has previously served as Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands from 2014 to 2017.
Michael Hall is an independent Steiner Waldorf school in Kidbrooke Park on the edge of Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. Founded in 1925, it is the oldest Steiner school in Britain, and has a roll of 400 students aged between three (kindergarten) and eighteen. The school owns a large amount of land.
Maria Colette Caulfield is a British politician and nurse serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women's Health Strategy and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women since October 2022.
Lorraine Mercer is a British thalidomide survivor, painter, lace maker, and carriage driver with the RDA.
Sheila Ewen Ritchie is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician and solicitor, who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Scotland constituency from 2019 to 2020.
Sally-Ann Hart is a British politician who has been the member of parliament (MP) for Hastings and Rye since 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, she succeeded Amber Rudd, the former home secretary.
Samantha Kate Dixon is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for the City of Chester since 2022. A member of the Labour Party, she was Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council from 2015 to 2019.