Barbara Follett
style="font-size: largest;"| Barbara Follett| |
| Constituency: | Stevenage |
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| Party: | Labour |
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| First elected: | May 1, 1997 |
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| Current majority: | 3,193 |
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| Predecessor: | Tim Wood |
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| } |
Daphne Barbara Follett (born
25 December 1942,
Kingston,
Jamaica as
Daphne Barbara Hubbard) is a
British politician - she is the
Labour Member of Parliament for
Stevenage, which she first won at the
1997 general election. She is married to author
Ken Follett.
Barbara Follett was born Daphne Barbara Hubbard in
Kingston,
Jamaica 25 December 1942 where her father was an insurance executive.
In
1946 the family returned, first to
Jersey then in
1947 to
Billericay,
Essex. In
1952 the family moved to
Ethiopia. In
1957 after an unfortunate incident involving her father, the family went to
Cape Town in
South Africa. She began a University degree in Art, but in
1962 had to give it up and started work with
Barclays Bank.
She married Richard Turner in
1963 and they went to
Paris where she worked for the
Berlitz School of Languages. They returned to South Africa in
1966 to run a fruit farm in
Stellenbosch. In
1969 she started working for
Kupugani, an organisation that provided cheap food for the poor.
In
1970, on the breakdown of her marriage, she became acting Regional Secretary at the
Institute of Race Relations. She worked again for Kupugani from
1971 to
1978. After a brief marriage to Gerald Stonestreet, she married architect Les Broer. In 1978, shortly after her ex-husband Richard was assassinated, the family fled back to
England, living at
Farnham in
Surrey, where she worked for the
Centre for International Briefing, and joined the
Labour Party.
She stood unsuccessfully as Labour candidate for
Woking in the
1983 general election. In
1985 she married author
Ken Follett. From
1984 to
1992 she was a freelance lecturer and consultant, contesting
Epsom and Ewell for Labour in
1987. She joined the
Fawcett Society and the
National Alliance of Women's Organisations and jointly founded the
Labour Women's Network in 1987.
She obtained a BSc (Econ) from the
London School of Economics, and was Visiting Fellow at the
Institute of Public Policy Research 1993 to
1997. She became a patron of
Action on Pre-Eclampsia.
In
1997 she was elected as
MP for Stevenage. She has served on many groups and committees, and is a member of the
Fabian Society.
She has many outside interests and now has an extended family.
*
Barbara Follett official site
*
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Barbara Follett MP*
TheyWorkForYou.com - Barbara Follett MP*
The Public Whip - Barbara Follett MP voting record
