Baroness Jay

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Margaret Ann Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, (née Callaghan; born 18 November 1939), is a British politician for the Labour Party and former

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television producer and presenter.

Background

Her father was James Callaghan, a Labour politician and

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

, and she was educated at

Blackheath High School Blackheath High School is an independent day school for girls in Blackheath Village in southeast London, England. It was founded in 1880 as part of the Girls' Day School Trust; the Senior School occupied a purpose-built site in Wemyss Road fo ...

, Blackheath and Somerville College, Oxford. Between 1965 and 1977 she held production posts within the

...
, working on current affairs and further education television programmes. She then became a journalist on the BBC's prestigious '' Panorama'' programme, and

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

's '' This Week'' and presented the BBC 2 series ''Social History of Medicine''. She has a strong interest in health issues, notably as a campaigner on

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

and AIDS. She was a founder director of the National Aids Trust in 1987 and is also a patron of

Help the Aged Help the Aged was a United Kingdom based international charity founded in 1961 by Cecil Jackson-Cole and Hugh Faulkner to help disadvantaged older people who were affected by poverty, isolation and neglect. It merged with Age Concern in 2009 to f ...

. Between 1994 and 1997, Baroness Jay was the Chairman of the charity Attend (then National Association of Hospital and Community Friends). In 2003, she was elected Vice-President of Attend.

Political career

Jay was appointed a life peer on 29 July 1992 with the title of Baroness Jay of Paddington, of

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

in the City of Westminster, and acted as an opposition Whip in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

. Her status as the daughter of a former Prime Minister led to her being nicknamed 'Posh Spice' after her ennoblement. As a peer, in association with the shop workers' union, she led opposition to the liberalisation of Sunday trading hours. After her party's election victory in May 1997, she became Minister of State for Health in the House of Lords. From 1998 she was

Leader of the House of Lords The leader of the House of Lords is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Lords. The post is also the leader of the majority party in the House of Lords who acts as ...

, playing a pivotal role in the major reform that led to the removal of most of its hereditary members. On 11 November 1999 the government's reform bill (

House of Lords Act 1999 The House of Lords Act 1999 (c. 34) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. The Act was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999. For centuries, the House of Lords ...

) was given Royal Assent and more than 660 hereditary peers lost their right to sit and vote in the Lords. She retired from active politics in 2001. Among numerous non-executive roles that she has taken on since retiring from politics, she was a

non-executive director A non-executive director (abbreviated to non-exec, NED or NXD), independent director or external director is a member of the board of directors of a corporation, such as a company, cooperative or non-government organization, but not a member of th ...

BT Group BT Group plc ( trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, bro ...

. She was co-chair of the cross-party Iraq Commission (along with Tom King and

Paddy Ashdown Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, (27 February 194122 December 2018), better known as Paddy Ashdown, was a British politician and diplomat who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999. Internati ...

) which was established by the

Foreign Policy Centre The Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) is a British think tank specialising in foreign policy. It was founded in 1998 by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and his colleagues. It was launched at an event with Prime Minister Tony Blair, with the aim of develo ...

think-tank and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

. Before her resignation, Jay gave an interview in which she said she attended a "pretty standard

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

", which was actually

, an independent school. (Although, as Jay herself pointed out, during the period when she attended it was a direct-grant school – that is to say, a state-funded direct grant grammar school.) She drew ridicule when she said she could understand the needs of rural voters because she had a "little cottage" in the country, which turned out to be a £500,000 house in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and she also had a "substantial property" in the Chilterns.

Personal life

In 1961, Callaghan married fellow journalist Peter Jay, a child of political parents:

Douglas Jay Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, Baron Jay, PC (23 March 1907 – 6 March 1996) was a British Labour Party politician. Early life Educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, Jay won the Chancellor's English Essay in 1927 and gained a ...

, Labour MP and president of the Board of Trade, and

Margaret Jay Margaret Ann Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, (née Callaghan; born 18 November 1939), is a British politician for the Labour Party and former BBC television producer and presenter. Background Her father was James Callaghan, a Labour politici ...

, member of the Greater London Council. Peter Jay was appointed ambassador to the United States by his friend David Owen, Foreign Secretary in her father's government, leading to accusations of nepotism. While in the United States, she met journalist

Carl Bernstein Carl Milton Bernstein ( ; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for ''The Washington Post'' in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original n ...

, with whom she had a much-publicised extramarital relationship in 1979. Bernstein's then-wife

Nora Ephron Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award for ...

fictionalised the story in her novel, ''

Heartburn Heartburn, also known as pyrosis, cardialgia or acid indigestion, is a burning sensation in the central chest or upper central abdomen. Heartburn is usually due to regurgitation of gastric acid (gastric reflux) into the esophagus. It is the m ...

'', in which the character of Thelma is a thinly disguised representation of Jay. Peter Jay then had an affair with their nanny, fathering a child in the process (he originally denied paternity). The Jays divorced in 1986 after 25 years of marriage. In 1994, she married AIDS specialist Michael Adler who had been chair of the National AIDS Trust when she was its director. She retained her surname from her first marriage. She has three children: Tamsin, Alice and Patrick.

Arms

References

External links

biographical article, NZ Herald 2005BBC profile 2001
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Jay of Paddington, Margaret Jay, Baroness 1939 births Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford BBC television presenters BBC television producers English people of Irish descent English people of Jewish descent Children of prime ministers of the United Kingdom Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom Labour Party (UK) life peers Leaders of the House of Lords Living people Lords Privy Seal Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Panorama (British TV programme) People educated at Blackheath High School Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford British women television producers Daughters of barons Women's ministers

Jay A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...