Yvette Cooper
Biography
Yvette Cooper is the Minister for Housing and Planning, and has been the MP for Pontefract and Castleford since 1997. She read PPE at Balliol College, Oxford, went on to Harvard University as a Kennedy scholar and the London School of Economics where she took a masters degree in economics. She worked as economic researcher for late John Smith, Policy Advisor to Bill Clinton Presidential Campaign, Policy Adviser to Labour Treasury Team, and was an economics columnist with The Independent newspaper. [1]
Cooper is a member of the TGWU and GMB unions.[2] She is married to Ed Balls, an MP and key advisor to then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. [3]
As Minister responsible for Planning, she will play a crucial role in determining whether new nuclear power stations are built.
Nuclear Cronyism
In May 2007, just days before the Government announced its latest White Paper on Energy, the thisislondon newspaper, ran the headline "Minister is Blasted Over 'Nuclear Cronyism'-
The article went on to say: "Planning Minister Yvette Cooper is at the centre of a 'cronyism' row after it was revealed that her father is a champion of the nuclear industry. Miss Cooper is set to announce controversial plans to help energy firms brush aside objections to new nuclear power stations.
Until recently, Miss Cooper's father Tony Cooper was chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association, which lobbies Ministers on the benefits of atomic power.
Mr Cooper, 63, an ex-union boss, is now director of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and has become one of the most outspoken champions of the industry's 'green' credentials." [4]
External links
- ^ Biography on Yvette Cooper's website, undated, accessed February 2006.
- ^ Tony Cooper's biography on Nuclear Decommissioning Authority website, undated, accessed February 2006.
- ^ Thisislondon,"Minister is Blasted Over 'Nuclear Cronyism'", May 19, 2007
