Brenda Josephine Cannell MHK (born 2 July 1952) is the current member of the

House of Keys The House of Keys () is the directly elected lower house of Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man, the other branch being the Legislative Council. History The oldest known reference to the name is in a document of 1417, written in L ...

for

Douglas East Douglas East is a House of Keys constituency in Douglas, Isle of Man. It elects 2 MHKs. Since the 2021 local elections the constituency's area has been adopted for Douglas East (ward) which replaced most of Victoria and Derby wards. The ward ...

. She was first elected in the 1996 general election.

Career

Cannell was a councillor for the Derby Ward of Douglas Town Council from 1992 to '95, serving as Chairman of the Public Health and Housing Committee (1993–94) and sitting on various other committees and groups. She also worked for the Isle of Man branch of Friends of the Earth. In 1996 she was elected as an MHK, and since that time has been Chairman of the Isle of Man Water Authority from 2002 to '04, and then Chairman of the Planning Committee (2004-2005), amongst many other roles. She was re-elected in 2001, 2006, and 2011.

Personal life

She was born Brenda Josephine Jones on 2 July 1952 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and moved to the island in 1977. She was a hair stylist prior to becoming an MHK, and her interests include music, gardening and the environment. She is married to Charles Randall Cannell, they have two sons named Louis and Samuel. Brenda also has two brothers named Marcus and Stephen who have between them 6 children; Lyndsey, Marcus Jnr., Beth, Nicole, Jake and Robyn.

References

Manx women in politics 1952 births Living people 21st-century British women politicians 20th-century British women politicians Members of the House of Keys 1996–2001 Members of the House of Keys 2001–2006 Members of the House of Keys 2006–2011 Members of the House of Keys 2011–2016 {{IsleofMan-politician-stub