Jenny Willott

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

British Liberal Democrat politician

title: "Jenny Willott" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1974-births", "living-people", "alumni-of-st-mary's-college,-durham", "politics-of-cardiff", "members-of-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-for-cardiff-constituencies", "liberal-democrats-(uk)-mps-for-welsh-constituencies", "councillors-in-the-london-borough-of-merton", "uk-mps-2005–2010", "uk-mps-2010–2015", "female-members-of-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-for-welsh-constituencies", "people-educated-at-uppingham-school", "members-of-the-privy-council-of-the-united-kingdom", "alumni-of-the-london-school-of-economics", "21st-century-british-women-politicians", "liberal-democrats-(uk)-councillors", "women-councillors-in-england", "officers-of-the-order-of-the-british-empire"] description: "British Liberal Democrat politician" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Willott" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British Liberal Democrat politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	Jenny Willott
honorific-suffix	OBE
image	Jenny Willott, September 2009 1 cropped.jpg
office1	Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs
term_start1	18 December 2013
term_end1	30 June 2014
primeminister1	David Cameron
predecessor1	Jo Swinson
successor1	Jo Swinson
office2	Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
term_start2	12 May 2010
term_end2	9 December 2010
primeminister2	David Cameron
successor2	Duncan Hames
office3	Member of Parliament
for Cardiff Central
term_start3	5 May 2005
term_end3	30 March 2015
predecessor3	Jon Owen Jones
successor3	Jo Stevens
birth_date
birth_place	Wimbledon, London, England
nationality	British
party	Welsh Liberal Democrats
spouse	Andrew Poole
children	2 sons
alma_mater	Durham University
London School of Economics
website
::

Education

Willott was born in Wimbledon, London. She was educated at Uppingham School, studied Classics at St Mary's College, Durham University, and attended the London School of Economics, obtaining an MSc in Development Studies.

Political career

After university, Willott was chief researcher for Lembit Opik, Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire.

Willott's 2005 campaign was closely linked to specific local and national issues and her support was widespread across all wards.

In her maiden speech, Willott pledged to "make Cardiff proud" and celebrated the cultural diversity of her constituency. She declared her priorities in parliament would be local health services, tuition and top-up fees, and council tax. She supported Sir Menzies Campbell in the leadership election in 2006, and was later appointed Shadow Minister for Youth Affairs, Whip, and Deputy Chief Whip.

In 2008 she was appointed as Shadow Minister for Justice and later Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. In January 2009 she was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

In December 2010 she resigned her post as parliamentary aide to Chris Huhne shortly before a vote to increase tuition fees as recommended by the Browne Review, to keep her pledge to constituents that she would vote against any increase in fees.

In a mini-reshuffle of the Coalition Government on 3 February 2012 caused by Huhne's prosecution and subsequent resignation, Willott was appointed an Assistant Whip.

In May 2014 Willott complained about the hostile atmosphere of Prime Minister's Questions and the low number of female ministers. She called for all-female shortlists for MPs, something which was not Liberal Democrat party policy. In 2014, she left the Government but was appointed to the Privy Council by David Cameron. In 2015, she lost her seat in the House of Commons to the Labour Party's Jo Stevens.

Controversy

Willott was subject to criticism from rival political parties and the media in the wake of the expenses scandal, as it emerged she claimed more in expenses and administration costs than any other Welsh MP. Her expenses and office costs were £57,000 in a year, including claims for a new flat and costs of moving offices in central Cardiff.

Willott also came under some pressure from political opponents over her support for the bedroom tax. A protest outside her Cardiff office about the issue led to her not going in to her office on that day.

After Parliament

She is currently Chief Executive Officer for Re-engage - the charity for reducing loneliness in later life.

Willott worked as The Director of Enterprise and Innovation at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. She is also a member of IPSAs board.

She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours, for political and public service.

Personal life

Willott is married to Andrew Poole and they have two children; the birth of her second child in February 2013 notably necessitated her absence from a vote on the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill.

References

(2010). "Dod's Parliamentary Companion". Dod's Parliamentary Companion Limited.
"Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath parliamentary constituency - Election 2017". BBC News.
[https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2005-05-26.881.0&s=section%3Adebates+speaker%3A11480#g912.0 Jenny Willott's maiden speech] TheyWorkForYou.com, 26 May 2006
[http://www.jennywillott.com/pages/biog.html My Biography], ''Jenny Willott MP''
(9 December 2010). "Lib Dems quit government to oppose tuition fees rise". BBC News.
(3 February 2012). "Press notice: New Ministerial Appointments". Number10.gov.uk.
(8 May 2014). "Equalities minister decries male-led Westminster and 'hateful' PMQs".
"Privy Council appointments: November 2014". United Kingdom Cabinet Office.
Graham Henry. (17 August 2013). "Welsh MP expenses 2012/13 – Wales Online". walesonline.
(22 November 2013). "Morning Star :: Shamed Cardiff MP flees bedroom tax protesters". morningstaronline.co.uk.
"St Mary's Director of Enterprise and Innovation Awarded OBE".
"Board and Chief Executive".
{{London Gazette. (9 June 2018)
"Who's Who". ukwhoswho.com.
(7 February 2013). "Lib Dem MP Martin Horwood: Why I wasn't present for the equal marriage vote". PinkNews.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::