Nicola Blackwood

Last updated

Paul Bate
​
(m. 2016)​
The Right Honourable
The Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Official portrait of Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford crop 2.jpg
Blackwood in 2020
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Life Science
In office
10 January 2019 –13 February 2020
Preceded by The Lord O'Shaughnessy
Succeeded by The Lord Bethell
Alma mater

Nicola Claire Blackwood, Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford [1] (born 16 October 1979) is a British politician of the Conservative Party. Baroness Blackwood was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford West and Abingdon from 2010 to 2017. She has also been known by her married name Nicola Blackwood-Bate since 2016. [2]

Contents

Early life

Blackwood was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, but has lived in the UK since she was two months old. She is the daughter of a medical doctor and a nurse. Blackwood was given a flute aged six, which led to a lifelong interest in music, later learning to sing and play the piano. At 14 she enrolled at the Trinity School of Music. [3] She studied music at St Anne's College, Oxford and Somerville College, Oxford, and later studied for an MPhil degree in musicology at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. [4] [5]

Parliamentary career

Blackwood was chosen as the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon at an open primary on 13 November 2006. [6] Boundary changes which came into effect in 2010 were thought to have favoured the Conservatives, with some 8,000 urban voters (including many students) being moved into the Oxford East constituency and more rural voters added. [7]

Blackwood won the seat at the 2010 general election by 176 votes on a 6.9% swing to the Conservatives from the Liberal Democrats. In late 2010, she was elected to serve on the Home Affairs Select Committee and was secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development. She was a member of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, [8] as well as holding a position on the Council of Advisors for ZANE, a charity which seeks to support pensioners in Zimbabwe. [9]

She was elected Member of Parliament at the 2010 election with a majority of 176, defeating the Liberal Democrats, who had held the seat since 1997. She lost her seat to the Liberal Democrats at the 2017 election, who won it back with a majority of 816. [10] During her time as Member of Parliament, she was chaired the Science and Technology Select Committee during the second Cameron ministry and served as a junior health minister during the first May ministry.[ citation needed ]

On 10 January 2019, Blackwood was appointed to replace Lord O'Shaughnessy as a junior minister for innovation in the Department of Health and Social Care serving in the House of Lords with the formal title of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health and she would thus be created a life peer. [11] [12] [13] Blackwood resigned from her ministerial position in the House of Lords in February 2020 to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to pursue time with her family.[ citation needed ]

Blackwood voted against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in 2013 after indicating to many students and constituents that she would support the measure, for which she was criticised by the Oxford University Student Union. [14] Blackwood said she had voted against the final draft of the Bill because she was not satisfied with the protection afforded religious freedoms.[ citation needed ]

At the 2015 general election, Blackwood retained her seat with a majority of 9,582, [15] which was in part due to the national swing of voters against the Liberal Democrats. [16]

In 2015, student activists criticised Blackwood for her support of fox hunting and she later confirmed pro-hunting group Vote-OK assisted with her election campaign during the 2015 general election. [17] [18] In June 2015, Blackwood was elected to the chairmanship of the Science & Technology Select Committee. [19]

She was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (PUS) at the Department of Health from July 2016–May 2017. In the 2017 general election, she lost her seat to the Liberal Democrat candidate Layla Moran who won with a majority of 816. [10] She has chaired the Human Tissue Authority since March 2018. [20]

On 1 February 2019, she was created a life peer as Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford, of North Oxford in the County of Oxfordshire. [21] She was briefly the youngest member of the House of Lords until Lord Ravensdale became a member of the House in March 2019. [22]

Blackwood was appointed Chair of Genomics England in May 2020 which runs the 100,000 Genomes Project. [23]

Personal life

Blackwood has been a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship since 2005, and is a regular worshipper at the Church of England's St Aldate's in Oxford. [9]

In March 2015, Blackwood said that she had been diagnosed with the genetic condition Ehlers–Danlos syndrome in 2013 and had later been diagnosed with the associated secondary condition of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which causes chronic migraines for which she is treated by having 32 injections in the head every 10–12 weeks. [24] She also stated that her medical conditions had not affected her performance as a Member of Parliament. [24] Her POTS was thought to be the cause of her fainting in the House of Lords whilst giving a statement at the despatch box on 17 June 2019, although she later said it was "no big deal". [25]

Blackwood married Paul Bate, founder, chief executive officer and portfolio manager at Matterhorn Investment Management LLP, in September 2016 at Merton College, Oxford. [26] Bate is a member of Oxford's Vincent's Club. [27]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of the United Kingdom</span> How political power is currently designated in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy where executive power is delegated by legislation and social conventions to a unitary parliamentary democracy. From this a hereditary monarch, currently King Charles III, serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Sir Keir Starmer since 2024, serves as the elected head of government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Williams</span> British politician and academic (1930–2021)

Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from 1974 to 1979. She was one of the "Gang of Four" rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981 and, at the time of her retirement from politics, was a Liberal Democrat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Beith</span> British politician

Alan James Beith, Baron Beith, is a British Liberal Democrat politician who represented Berwick-upon-Tweed as its Member of Parliament (MP) from 1973 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gisela Stuart</span> British-German politician and life peer (born 1955)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diana Maddock, Baroness Maddock</span> British Liberal Democrat politician (1945–2020)

Diana Margaret Pearson Maddock, Baroness Maddock, Lady Beith was a British Liberal Democrat politician. She was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Christchurch in a 1993 by-election but lost the seat at the subsequent 1997 general election to Conservative Christopher Chope. She re-entered Parliament as a life peer as Baroness Maddock, of Christchurch in the County of Dorset, in 1997 where she remained until her death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne</span> British politician, life peer (born 1941)

Emma Harriet Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is a British politician, who has been a life peer since 1997. She was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Torridge and West Devon in 1987, before switching to the Liberal Democrats in 1995. She was also the Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for South East England from 1999 to 2009. In 2016, she announced she was re-joining the Conservative Party "with tremendous pleasure". In 2017, Baroness Nicholson was appointed as Prime Minister's Trade Envoy for Kazakhstan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evan Harris</span> British Liberal Democrat politician

Evan Leslie Harris is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford West and Abingdon from 1997 to 2010, losing his seat in the 2010 general election by 176 votes to Conservative Nicola Blackwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Kramer, Baroness Kramer</span> British Liberal Democrat politician

Susan Veronica Kramer, Baroness Kramer PC is a British politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond Park from 2005 to 2010. A member of the Liberal Democrats, she was their Treasury Spokesperson from 2015 to 2017 and 2017 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxford East (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom since 1983

Oxford East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Anneliese Dodds of the Labour Party, who also serves as party chair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxford West and Abingdon (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom since 1983

Oxford West and Abingdon is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South West Surrey (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1983-2024

South West Surrey was a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Since its 1983 creation, South West Surrey has been represented only by members of the Conservative Party. From 2005, the seat's MP was Jeremy Hunt, who served as chancellor of the Exchequer until 2024, and the former Culture Secretary, Health Secretary and Foreign Secretary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lorely Burt</span> British Liberal Democrat politician (born 1954)

Lorely Jane Burt, Baroness Burt of Solihull is a British politician, who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Solihull from 2005 to 2015. She received a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours. She is a patron of Humanists UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witney (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom since 1983

Witney is a county constituency in Oxfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2024 by Charles Maynard of the Liberal Democrats. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election, and was created for the 1983 general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sal Brinton</span> British politician (born 1955)

Sarah Virginia Brinton, Baroness Brinton, known as Sal Brinton, is a British politician who served as president of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2020. In November 2010 she was nominated to the House of Lords, taking her place on 10 February 2011 having been created Baroness Brinton, of Kenardington in the County of Kent on 4 February. After Jo Swinson lost her seat at the 2019 general election, Brinton and Sir Ed Davey became acting co-leaders of the Liberal Democrats. After Brinton's term as party president ended, her successor Mark Pack also succeeded her as acting co-leader with Davey. Davey was elected as permanent leader of the party in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh Liberal Democrats</span> Welsh branch of the Liberal Democrats

The Welsh Liberal Democrats are a branch of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats that operates in Wales. The party is led by Jane Dodds, who served as MP for Brecon and Radnorshire from August to December 2019, and MS for Mid and West Wales since May 2021. The party currently has one elected member in the Senedd and one Welsh seat in the UK House of Commons. It also has several members of the House of Lords. The party had 69 local councilors serving in principal authorities as of the 2022 local authority elections, up 10 from 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom</span> Females in the British House of Commons

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Layla Moran</span> British politician (born 1982)

Layla Michelle Moran is a British Liberal Democrat politician serving as the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Development since 2020, and who has been the Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon since 2017.

On 20 October 2016, a by-election was held in the UK parliamentary constituency of Witney. It took place on the same day as the Batley and Spen by-election. They were the fifth and sixth by-elections of the 56th UK Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daisy Cooper</span> Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Daisy Cooper is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for St Albans since 2019. She has served as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020, as well as the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Health, Wellbeing and Social Care since 2021.

References

  1. ↑ "No. 59418". The London Gazette . 13 May 2010. p. 8744.
  2. ↑ "Blackwood-Bate, Nicola - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health and Innovation at the Department of Health - ACOBA recommendation". GOV.UK. 20 November 2018.
  3. ↑ "God in the life of Nicola Blackwood". Diocese of Oxford. 17 May 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  4. ↑ "St Anne's Alumnae Elected to Parliament". St Anne's College. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  5. ↑ "Four Somervillian MPs appointed to new roles in Cabinet reshuffle". Somerville College, Oxford. 20 July 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  6. ↑ "ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog: Oxford West and Abingdon open primary". conservativehome.blogs.com.
  7. ↑ "Tory topples Evan Harris". The Oxford Times. 7 May 2010.
  8. ↑ Oxford City Conservatives — Nicola Blackwood Archived 1 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  9. 1 2 "Profile of Nicola Blackwood". 17 July 2011. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  10. 1 2 "Election results 2017: Lib Dems gain Oxford West and Abingdon". BBC News. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  11. ↑ Sparrow, Andrew; Rawlinson, Kevin (10 January 2019). "Brexit: Japanese PM tells May 'whole world' wants her to avoid no deal - as it happened". The Guardian.
  12. ↑ "Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health (Lords)". gov.uk.
  13. ↑ "Defeated Tory MP made minister and peer". BBC News. 11 January 2019.
  14. ↑ Gerretsen, Isabelle (23 May 2013). "Anger as Oxford MP votes against gay marriage". Cherwell.
  15. ↑ "Oxford West & Abingdon parliamentary constituency – Election 2015". BBC News. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  16. ↑ Jacobs, Josh (20 May 2015). "Why Did 27 Lib Dem Seats Swing to the Conservatives?". Huffington Post. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  17. ↑ The Herald. "Nicola Blackwood's campaign being helped by pro-hunting group volunteers". The Herald. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  18. ↑ Mintz, Luke (24 April 2015). "Oxford West MP under fire for fox hunting stance". The Oxford Student.
  19. ↑ "Winning candidates for select committee Chairs announced". UK Parliament. 18 June 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  20. ↑ "Biographies: Nicola Blackwood". Human Tissue Authority. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  21. ↑ "No. 62553". The London Gazette . 6 February 2019. p. 1986.
  22. ↑ "Membership and principal office holders". UK Parliament . Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  23. ↑ "Register of Interests for Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
  24. 1 2 Rodgers, Keeley (31 March 2015). "Nicola Blackwood: I'm battling a genetic mobility condition EhlersDanlos". Oxford Mail.
  25. ↑ "House of Lords collapse 'no big deal'". BBC News. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  26. ↑ "Nicola Blackwood MP becomes Mrs as she weds in classical ceremony at Merton College". Oxford Mail. 8 September 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  27. ↑ Vincents Oxford. "Vincent's Club Members' Register" (PDF). Vincents.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon
2010–2017 		Succeeded by
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Ladies
Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford		Followed by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.