Anne Jenkin, Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

Anne Caroline Jenkin, Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (born 8 December 1955) is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

The Right Honourable

The Baroness Jenkin
of Kennington
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
27 January 2011
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born
Anne Caroline Strutt

(1955-12-08) 8 December 1955
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1988)​
RelationsRobert Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh (paternal grandfather)
Children2
ParentsHon. Charles Strutt
Hon. Jean Davidson

Early life

Jenkin was born Anne Caroline Strutt on 8 December 1955 to the Hon. Charles Strutt and the Hon. Jean Davidson. Her father is the son of the physicist the 4th Baron Rayleigh by his first wife, Lady Hilda Clements. Her mother is the daughter of the Conservative politician the 1st Viscount Davidson and the life peeress Baroness Northchurch.

Political career

Jenkin stood for election as a Member of Parliament in Glasgow Provan in the 1987 general election.[1] In 2005, she co-founded Women2Win with Theresa May, a campaign to increase the number of female Conservative MPs. She is currently its co-chair with Mark Harper.[2]

She co-founded the Conservative Friends of International Development in 2011.[3]

She was created a life peer on 26 January 2011 as Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, of Hatfield Peverel in the County of Essex.[4] She was introduced to the House of Lords on 27 January 2011, where she sits on the Conservative benches.[5]

In 2013, she spoke in favour of equal marriage.[6][5]

In 2014, she was a member of the APPG on Food Poverty and Hunger when it co-produced a report on food poverty, with the charity Feeding Britain. One of the report's findings was that there were 4 million people in the UK struggling to afford food.[7] At the publication press conference on 8 December she said that the report found that one cause of the rise of hunger and food bank use in the UK was because, "We [as a society] have lost a lot of our cooking skills, and poor people don't know how to cook." [8][9] Later that day, in another interview about the report's launch, she apologised for the remark, saying she was speaking without a script and had made a mistake:[10] "What I meant was as a society we have lost our ability to cook" which was a problem affecting low income families most severely.[11]

In January 2018, Jenkin attracted media attention after criticising abuse received by candidates during the 2017 general election, in particular women candidates, in particular Conservative women candidates.[12] In the debate on social media regulation in the House of Lords, Jenkin cited the example of a candidate being abused as a "fucking Tory cunt":

During the election campaign in June, the Ealing Central and Acton Conservative candidate was met daily outside her home by a large group of Momentum and Labour activists yelling at her, and I quote—and please, my Lords, forgive the unparliamentary language and block your ears if you are sensitive or easily offended—“Fucking Tory cunt”. This young woman has a young child. How can this be acceptable?[13]

This is the first time the word "cunt" has been used (and recorded) in either the House of Lords or House of Commons.[14]

As of 2019, Jenkin is a member of parliamentary committees on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision and Hybrid Instruments. She has previously served on committees addressing Equality Act 2010 and Disability and Charities.[5]

Other roles

Jenkin is a Trustee of Waste & Resources Action Programme, Cool Earth and Feeding Britain. She was previously a Trustee of UNICEF UK.

In 2016, Jenkin became founding chancellor of Writtle University College, on its achieving university college status. The college is in Essex and specialises in agricultural and horticultural courses.[15]

In 2017, Jenkin was chair of the Centre for Social Justice Off the Scales working group on childhood obesity in England.[16]

Personal life

Since 1988 she has been married to the Conservative Member of Parliament Bernard Jenkin, whose father was the Conservative life peer The Lord Jenkin of Roding.[17] Jenkin and her husband have two sons.

Styles
  • Miss Anne Strutt (1955–1988)
  • The Hon. Mrs Bernard Jenkin (1988–2011)
  • The Rt Hon. Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (2011–present)

References
  1. Childs, Sarah (2008). Women and British Party Politics: Descriptive, Substantive and Symbolic Representation. Routledge. p. 52. ISBN 9781134211586.
  2. "About us". Women2Win. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  3. "About CFID". Conservative Friends of International Development. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  4. "No. 59688". The London Gazette. 2 February 2011. p. 1745.
  5. "Baroness Jenkin of Kennington". Membership of the House of Lords. Parliament. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  6. "Baroness Jenkin: 'Times have changed and my family would have been ashamed if I opposed equal marriage'". Pink News.
  7. https://feedingbritain.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/feeding_britain_report_2014-2.pdf
  8. Griffin, Andrew (8 December 2014). "Baroness Jenkin: Tory peer claims poor people go hungry because they 'don't know how to cook'". The Independent. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  9. Holehouse, Matthew (8 December 2014). "Poor going hungry because they can't cook, says Tory peer". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  10. Holehouse, Matthew (8 December 2014). "Poor going hungry because they can't cook, says Tory peer". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  11. "Tory peer apologises for saying 'poor can't cook'". BBC News. 8 December 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  12. "Social Media: News - Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  13. "Social Media: News - Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  14. "Find References - Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  15. "Writtle University College Founding Chancellor Baroness Jenkin of Kennington". Writtle University College. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  16. "Off The Scales - Tackling England's Childhood Obesity Crisis" (PDF). The Centre of Social Justice. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  17. Fitch, Rachel (22 November 2010). "MP's wife Anne Jenkin gets seat in House of Lords". The Daily Gazette. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.