Constituency : Richmond Park 1997-2005
Jenny was one of the more surprising Liberal Democrat victories. Following boundary changes, the party identified neighbouring Twickenham as the better prospect and concentrated resources there but they ended up winning both seats.
Jenny was born in Walsall. Both her parents were teachers. She was educated at Dudley Girls High School and University College Hospital, becoming a doctor. She started out as a GP then became Senior Medical Officer in Women's Services in Ealing in the eighties. In the nineties, she became a manager of Community Health Services. She was a councillor in Richmond from 1981 to 1990. She stood for Richmond and Barnes in 1992 but couldn't dislodge the Tories.
Jenny became spokesperson on international development from 1997, switching to children in 2003. She increased her majority in 2001.In 2002, she challenged Tony Blair over the teaching of creationism in Emmanuel College.
In 2003 Jenny visited Gaza alongside Jewish \Labour MP Oona King and compared the conditions there to the Warsaw ghetto. The following year she said she could imagine becoming a suicide bomber if she lived there under Isaraeli oppression and was sacked as a spokesman by Charles Kennedy.
Jenny stood down in 2005 and became a life peer. In 2006 she said "The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grip on the Western world, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a grip on our party". She was reprimanded by leader Menzies Campbell who said the remarks had "clear anti-Semitic connotations". She continued her campaign against Israel calling for a full trade embargo as a response to their actions in Gaza.
In 2012 Nick Clegg sacked her as a health spokesman after she suggested that an accusation that Israeli medical teams were harvesting organs in Haiti merited an independent enquiry. He said her comments were "wrong, distasteful and provocative". In 2012 she appeared at an Israeli Apartheid event and declared that one day the US would cease to support Israel "and then they will reap what they have sown". Clegg told her to apologise or resign the whip and she chose the latter option, sitting as an independent Liberal Democrat. She welcomed the election of Jeremy Corbyn and said she was considering joining Labour.
In 2016 she was suspended for chairing a meeting of the Palestine Return Council and finally resigned from the party.
Jenny is in favour of stem cell research, abortion and euthanasia.
She is now 78.
No comments:
Post a Comment