Neena Gill

Last updated

John Towner
(m. 1982;div. 2009)
Neena Gill
CBE
Neena Gill, Member of the European Parliament, Belgium.jpg
Member of the European Parliament
for West Midlands
In office
1 July 2014 31 January 2020
Children1
Residence(s) London, England
Alma mater
Website www.neenagillmep.eu

Neena Gill, CBE is a British Labour Party politician. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands first from 1999 to 2009, and then from 2014 to 2020.

Contents

Early life and career

Gill was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. [1] She emigrated to the UK with her family when she was ten years old. Her father was a businessman. [2] Gill's first job was working in a library at the age of 16. [3] She graduated with a bachelor's degree in social studies from Liverpool John Moores University in 1979. [4] She was vice president of the students union. [5] Gill later gained a postgraduate professional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Housing in 1984 and in 1996, she completed the senior executive programme at the London Business School. [4]

After graduation, Gill became a trainee accountant but only worked for six weeks before leaving to become a housing officer at Ealing London Borough Council. [5] Aged 29, Gill became the chief executive of ASRA Group, making her the first female, first non-white and youngest chief executive of a UK housing association. [2] [5] She then worked as the chief executive of Newlon Housing Group. [4]

Political career

Prior to Labour's electoral success in 1997, Gill worked with members of Labour's shadow cabinet to help develop the party's social policy. [2] In 1999, she was elected as the first female Asian MEP in the European Parliament. [6] Representing the West Midlands between 1999 and 2009, Gill held various positions, including President of the Delegation for Relations with India and President of the Delegation for Relations with South Asia and SAARC countries. She was also a member of The Legal Affairs Committee and of the Budgets Committee.

Gill was unsuccessful in her bid to be re-elected for a third term as MEP in 2009. [7] During her time outside of parliament, she worked as the vice president for corporate affairs (Europe and Asia Pacific) for software company SAS. [8] [9]

Gill in 2017 discussing Brexit and India Neena Gill.jpg
Gill in 2017 discussing Brexit and India

In 2014, she was re-elected as one of two Labour MEPs (the other being Siôn Simon) for the West Midlands. [10] During this term, she was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, special committee on tax rulings, financial crimes, tax evasion and avoidance, and part of the delegation for relations with India and the United States. [11] She was particularly active on financial regulation and was the rapporteur for the 2015 European Money Market Funds (MMF) Regulation. [4]

In 2017, Gill was one of two UK winners (the other being Conservative MP Priti Patel) of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, the highest honour given to NRIs by the Indian government. [12] In the same year, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours. [13] In July 2018, Gill became an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University. [5]

She was re-elected in the 2019 European parliamentary election as the sole Labour MEP for the West Midlands. [14] Gill remained a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. In September 2019, Gill joined the delegation for relations with Japan as Chair and the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly as Vice-Chair and S&D Co-ordinator. [15]

In 2024, she was selected as the Labour Party candidate in the Bromsgrove constituency at the 2024 general election. [16] She came second in the contest, receiving 26.8% of the vote share. [17]

Personal life

She married Dr. John Towner, an environmental consultant, in 1982 and they have one son. They divorced in 2009. [1] [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jill Evans</span> British politician and MEP

Jill Evans is a Plaid Cymru politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Wales from 1999 to 2020. She was the first person to use the Welsh language in debate at the European Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Titley</span> British politician (born 1950)

Gary Titley is a British Labour Party politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North West of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siôn Simon</span> British politician

Siôn Llewelyn Simon is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Erdington from 2001 to 2010 and as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands from 2014 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda McAvan</span> British Labour politician

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillip Whitehead</span>

Phillip Whitehead was a British Labour politician, television producer and writer.

John Attard Montalto is a Maltese politician who was a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 until 2014. He is a member of the Labour Party, which is part of the Party of European Socialists. He served in the government of Malta as Minister for Industry and Economic Affairs from 1996 to 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Hallam</span>

David Hallam, is a British Labour Party politician and writer. He is the former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Herefordshire and Shropshire constituency in England, in the 1994–1999 European Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anja Weisgerber</span> German lawyer and politician

Anja Weisgerber is a German lawyer and politician. She currently is a member of the German Bundestag representing Schweinfurt for the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), part of the European People's Party (EPP). She previously served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Bavaria. In addition to her political work, she serves as of counsel at the Frankfurt office of German law firm GSK Stockmann & Kollegen.

Lynda Ellen Waltho is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stourbridge from 2005 to 2010, succeeding Labour MP Debra Shipley, who had stepped down due to ill-health just days before the 2005 election was called. At the 2010 election, the Conservative candidate Margot James took the seat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenis Willmott</span> British Labour politician (born 1951)

Dame Glenis Willmott, is a retired British Labour Party politician who served as leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) and Member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Simpson</span> British politician, MEP (born 1953)

Brian Simpson OBE is a British Labour Party politician who was Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for North West England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nessa Childers</span> Irish former politician (born 1956)

Nessa Maria Vereker Childers is an Irish former independent politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esther de Lange</span> Dutch politician

Esther M. R. de Lange is a Dutch politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) between 2007 and 2024. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), part of the European People's Party (EPP), she was elected as delegation leader in the European Parliament at a party conference on 2 November 2013 in Leeuwarden, a position she assumed the following year. In July 2014 she was elected as Vice President of the EPP Group in the European Parliament and in June 2018 as Vice President of the EPP Party. De Lange stepped down as MEP in February 2024.

Alfred Lomas was a British Labour politician who served as the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London North East for its entire existence, from the first European election in 1979 to the reorganisation of constituencies in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kati Piri</span> Hungarian-born Dutch politician (born 1979)

Kati Piri is a Hungarian-born Dutch politician serving as a member of the House of Representatives since 2021. A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), she previously was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) within the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats from 2014 until 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Željana Zovko</span> Bosnian and Croatian politician (born 1970)

Željana Zovko is a Bosnian and Croatian diplomat and politician. Since 2016, she has been serving as a member of the European Parliament from Croatia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romana Tomc</span> Slovenian politician

Romana Tomc is a Slovenian politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Slovenia. She is a member of the Slovenian Democratic Party, part of the European People's Party.

Andrew Robert England Kerr is a British politician. England Kerr was elected as a Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands constituency in the 2019 European parliamentary election. Prior to his political career he was a solicitor who specialised in property law. On 29 September 2019, he became an independent MEP after his party withdrew the whip.

Johanna Levina Adriana Boogerd-Quaak is a Dutch politician who served two terms as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999 and again between 2003 and 2004. She is a member of the Democrats 66 party and of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group. During her two periods as an MEP, Boogerd-Quaak served on several committees and was vice-chair of each of the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs and the Delegation to the European Economic Area Joint Parliamentary Committee. She was appointed Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlene Lenz</span> German politician

Marlene Lenz is a German Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) politician and translator who served four terms as a Member of the European Parliament in the European Parliament from 1979 to 1999. She worked for the French Europa League, the German Atlantic Society, the European Economic Community's European Commission and was secretary-general and later vice-president of the European Union of Women. Lenz was also involved in local politics for the CDU in Bonn.

References

  1. 1 2 Gill, Neena. UK Who's Who. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U17141. ISBN   978-0-19-954088-4 . Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "One of a kind". Politico. 2 April 2003. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  3. "5 questions with... Neena Gill". The Parliament Magazine. 3 May 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Johnson, Steve (23 November 2014). "Political animal stalks EU money funds". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Honorary Fellow Neena Gill CBE". Liverpool John Moores University. 13 July 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  6. "Harman's office Thatcher U-turn". BBC News. 16 September 2009. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  7. "European elections 2009: West Midlands region". The Daily Telegraph. 26 May 2009. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  8. "Neena Gill, Member of European Parliament for the West Midlands (Labour)". University of Warwick. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  9. "Neena Gill". Women Economic Forum. 21 January 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  10. "West Midlands". BBC News. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  11. "8th parliamentary term". European Parliament. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  12. "Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards-2017". Ministry of External Affairs. 9 January 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  13. "New Year's Honours 2017: CSV". gov.uk. 30 December 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  14. "European election 2019: Brexit Party tops West Midlands polls". BC News. 27 May 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  15. "9th parliamentary term". European Parliament. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  16. "Labour's parliamentary candidate Neena Gill joins campaign trail in Bromsgrove". Bromsgrove Standard. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  17. "Bromsgrove - General election results 2024". BBC News. Retrieved 5 July 2024.