Tina Wendy Stowell,Baroness Stowell of Beeston, MBE PC (born 2 July 1967) is a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords. [1]
Baroness Stowell served as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal under David Cameron. She was succeeded by the Baroness Evans of Bowes Park on 14 July 2016.
Stowell grew up in Beeston,Nottinghamshire. Her father was a painter/decorator and her mother worked in a local factory. She attended Chilwell Comprehensive School,where she gained five O-levels,followed by Broxtowe College in Beeston.[ citation needed ]
After leaving college,Stowell worked at the Ministry of Defence between 1986 and 1988. She was then employed at the British Embassy in the United States until 1991,before transferring to the No. 10 Press Office,where she served under the then-Prime Minister John Major. In recognition of her performance in this position,she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1996 Birthday Honours. [2]
Following the 1997 general election,Stowell worked at Conservative Party Headquarters during William Hague's tenure as party leader and was his Deputy Chief of Staff. [3] [4]
In November 2001,Stowell joined the BBC as deputy secretary. She became Head of Communications for the BBC Trust in 2003,in which capacity she worked for three successive chairmen (Gavyn Davies,Michael Grade,and Sir Michael Lyons). In September 2008 she became the BBC's Head of Corporate Affairs. [5]
In 2010,Stowell sought the Conservative nomination for the safe seat of Bromsgrove [6] but lost to Sajid Javid. Labour MPs called for her to resign her BBC post to avoid a conflict of interest. [7]
Stowell was created a Life Peer as Baroness Stowell of Beeston,of Beeston in the County of Nottinghamshire,on 10 January 2011. She was introduced to the House of Lords,where she sits on the Conservative benches,on 13 January 2011. [8] [9]
On 18 September 2011,Baroness Stowell was appointed a Baroness-in-Waiting to the Queen,following the promotion of the former Lord-in-Waiting Lord Taylor of Holbeach (who became a junior minister at the Department for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs). [10]
In 2013,Baroness Stowell with the guidance of Christopher Briggs was responsible for steering the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill for England and Wales through the House of Lords. She was subsequently,on 7 October 2013,promoted to the post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government. [11]
On 2 April 2014,she defended overseas property investors in London in a Parliamentary debate. [12]
In a cabinet reshuffle in July 2014,Baroness Stowell was appointed Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. She also became a Privy Counsellor. In this capacity,though she was able to attend its meetings,she was not a full member of the Cabinet.
Following the 2015 general election,Baroness Stowell remained in her role and became a full member of the Cabinet. [13] She was succeeded by the Rt. Hon. Baroness Evans of Bowes Park on 14 July 2016. [14]
The Department for Digital,Culture,Media and Sport selected Stowell to be the new chair of the Charity Commission for England and Wales. However in 2018 the parliamentary Digital,Culture,Media and Sport Committee at their interview of Stowell unanimously refused to endorse the appointment due to "a complete lack of experience" and a lack of "any real insight,knowledge or vision". [15]
In 2018,it was reported that the Charity Commission for England and Wales,of which Stowell is Chair,would question The Transformation Trust,a charity which Stowell was a trustee of,over staff payments. [16]
Janet Mary Young,Baroness Young,was a British Conservative Party politician. She served as the first ever female Leader of the House of Lords from 1981 to 1983,first as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and from 1982 as Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. She was the only woman ever appointed to the Cabinet by Margaret Thatcher.
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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.
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Nicola Ann Morgan,Baroness Morgan of Cotes,is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities from 2014 to 2016 and Secretary of State for Digital,Culture,Media and Sport from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Conservative Party,she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Loughborough from 2010 to 2019.
Sajid Javid is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022,having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Conservative Party,he has been Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove since 2010.
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Simone Jari Finn,Baroness Finn is a businesswoman and British-American Conservative politician who was the acting,de facto Downing Street chief of staff from July 2022 –September 2022 and Downing Street deputy chief of staff from February 2021 until the end of the second Johnson Ministry.
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Theresa May formed the first May ministry in the United Kingdom on 13 July 2016,after having been invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new administration. Then the Home Secretary,May's appointment followed the resignation of then Prime Minister David Cameron. The ministry,a Conservative majority government,succeeded the second Cameron ministry which had been formed following the 2015 general election. Cameron's government was dissolved as a result of his resignation in the immediate aftermath of the June 2016 referendum on British withdrawal from the European Union.
The first Johnson ministry began on 24 July 2019 when Queen Elizabeth II invited Boris Johnson to form a new administration,following the resignation of the predecessor Prime Minister Theresa May. May had resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June 2019;Johnson was elected as her successor on 23 July 2019. The Johnson ministry was formed from the 57th Parliament of the United Kingdom,as a Conservative minority government. It lost its working majority on 3 September 2019 when Tory MP Dr Phillip Lee crossed the floor to the Liberal Democrats. An election was called for 12 December 2019,which led to the formation of a Conservative majority government,the second Johnson ministry.
The second Johnson ministry began on 16 December 2019,three days after Boris Johnson's audience with Queen Elizabeth II where she invited him to form a new administration following the 2019 general election,in which the Conservative Party was returned to power with a majority of 80 seats in the House of Commons. Initially the ministers were largely identical to those at the end of the first Johnson ministry,but changed significantly in cabinet reshuffles in February 2020 and September 2021.
