Audrey Wise (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Brown; 4 January 1932Wise gave her age as thirty-nine when nominated for the Coventry parliamentary seat, though she had just turned forty-two when she was elected in February 1974. Her date of birth was routinely reported as 1935 after this date, which often caused her "enormous difficulty" when asked in later years. See and

Chris Mullin Christopher Paul Mullin (born July 30, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player, executive and coach. He is a two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (in 2010 as a memb ...

in ''A View from the Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin'' (Profile Books, 2009, p127) – 2 September 2000) was a British

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Life

Audrey Wise was born Audrey Brown in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, the daughter of a former Labour councillor. She married her husband John, a dispensing optician, in 1953. At the age of 21 she became a

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

borough councillor. She served as MP for Coventry South West from February 1974-79, a period of tenuous Labour Government with marginal or no majorities. Despite Labour being in power, "at Westminster in the 1970s she was regarded as something of a left-wing nuisance, a state of affairs that she viewed as necessary and desirable." During the 1970s she was a leading member of the

Institute for Workers' Control The Institute for Workers' Control was founded in 1968 by Tony Topham and Ken Coates, the latter then a leader of the International Marxist Group and subsequently professor at the University of Nottingham and a member of the European Parliament fro ...

. She visited Portugal in 1974 to report on and participate in the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...

that overthrew the fascist dictatorship, recording her experiences and analysis in ''Eyewitness in Revolutionary Portugal.'' She was famously arrested on the picket line during the

Grunwick dispute The Grunwick dispute was a British industrial dispute involving trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Chapter Road, Dollis Hill in the London suburb of Willesden, that led to a two-year strike between 1976 and 197 ...

where Asian women workers were striking for union recognition. With

Jeff Rooker Jeffrey William Rooker, Baron Rooker (born 5 June 1941) is a British politician and life peer who served as a government minister from 1997 to 2008. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Perry Barr from ...

, she co-authored the Rooker-Wise Amendment to

Denis Healey Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey, (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970; he ...

's 1977

budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...

which sought to freeze many annual fiscal changes to mitigate global inflation; this amendment introduced retrospective inflation-proofing on personal tax allowances (the tax-free portion of individuals' earnings), and resulted in £450 million being returned to taxpayers. Losing her seat in the 1979 general election, she stood unsuccessfully in

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...

in 1983. She was then elected as MP for Preston in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

, which she held until her death in 2000. Wise was a member of the left-wing

Campaign Group The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a left-wing, democratic socialist grouping of the Labour Party's Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the ...

of Labour MPs. She was president of the shop staff union

USDAW The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) is a trade union in the United Kingdom, consisting of around 360,000 members. Usdaw members work in a variety of occupations and industries including: shopworkers, factory and warehouse wo ...

between 1991 and 1997. As a member of the health select committee, she persuaded the committee to hold an inquiry into maternity services. The report, endorsed by the Conservative government, called for services to become more woman-centred, and recommended increased access to home births and water births. She died on 2 September 2000 from a brain tumour, which had been diagnosed some five months earlier. Her family described her death as "one fight she did not win". The conflict between Audrey Wise and the Labour

Whips A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

was highlighted in the National Theatre play '' This House'' by James Graham in 2012. She was survived by her two children:

Valerie Valerie may refer to: People *Saint Valerie (disambiguation), a number of saints went by the name Valerie *Valerie (given name), a feminine given name Songs *"Valerie", a 1981 song by Quarterflash, from ''Quarterflash'' *"Valerie", a 1982 son ...

, who is also a political activist, and Ian.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wise, Audrey 1932 births 2000 deaths Councillors in the London Borough of Haringey Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Lancashire UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 Deaths from brain tumor Politicians from Newcastle upon Tyne 20th-century British women politicians 21st-century British women politicians 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Women councillors in England