Shirley Williams

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Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.[1]

Early life

Williams is the daughter of the late Professor Sir George Catlin and the late Vera Brittain and was educated at St Paul's Girls' School, London and eight other schools in the UK and US. She was an open scholar at Somerville College Oxford (BA philosophy, politics and economics 1951, MA 1954), where she was elected the first woman Chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club, and a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University New York.[2]

Journalism

Shirley Williams started her career as a journalist with the Daily Mirror (1952-54) and Financial Times (1954-58).[3]

Labour

Williams was General Secretary of the Fabian Society until her election as Labour MP for Hitchin (later Hertford and Stevenage) in 1964. She served in the British Cabinet (1974-79) as Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection, Paymaster General and Secretary of State for Education and Science. She lost the seat in 1979.[4]

SDP

Williams was a co-founder of the Social Democratic Party in 1981 and its first elected MP, winning a by-election in Crosby, Merseyside that year.[5]

Liberal Democrats

Williams became Baroness Williams of Crosby in 1993 and was spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the Lords from 1998 to 2001.[6]

Affiliations

External Resources

Notes

  1. Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
  2. Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
  3. Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
  4. Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
  5. Baroness Williams of Crosby, 7 July 2010.
  6. Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.
  7. Baroness Williams of Crosby, Liberal Democrats, 7 July 2010.