Christine Margaret Oddy (20 September 1955 – 27 July 2014) was an English politician. Born and brought up in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

, she was educated at

Stoke Park School Stoke Park School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Coventry, West Midlands, England. It was established in 1919 as a grammar school, but later became comprehensive. Previously a foundation school and Technology ...

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, the Institute of European Studies, and Birkbeck College. She worked as a solicitor, and later as a lecturer, also serving as an officer for NATFHE. Oddy was the Labour Member of the European Parliament for the Midlands Central constituency from 1989 to 1999. She won the seat from the Conservatives in 1989 and retained it in 1994. She served on several committees including Committee on Women's Rights, and also spent time as the treasurer of the

European Parliamentary Labour Party The European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) was the parliamentary party of the British Labour Party in the European Parliament. The EPLP was part of the pan-European Group of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), (with MEPs from sister parties such a ...

. However, she only obtained seventh place out of eight on the proposed Labour Party candidate list for the West Midlands constituency for the 1999 European Parliament elections. She then took the Labour Party to an

industrial tribunal Employment tribunals are tribunal public bodies in England and Wales and Scotland which have statutory jurisdiction to hear many kinds of disputes between employers and employees. The most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, red ...

about the selection procedures for the list, and was removed altogether from the Labour Party list about a month before the election. She resigned from the Labour Party, and contested, as an independent, the 1999 European election in the West Midlands constituency (gaining 36,000 votes) and the 2001 UK general election in Coventry North West.

Cancer and death

She later won damages from

University Hospital Coventry University Hospital Coventry is a large National Health Service (NHS) hospital situated in the Walsgrave on Sowe area of Coventry, West Midlands, England, north-east of the city centre. It is part of the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwi ...

in relation to alleged shortcomings with her care and treatment for cervical cancer. The cancer

metastasized Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

and she died on 27 July 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oddy, Christine 1955 births 2014 deaths Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Alumni of University College London MEPs for England 1989–1994 MEPs for England 1994–1999 20th-century women MEPs for England Labour Party (UK) MEPs Politicians from Coventry Deaths from cervical cancer Deaths from cancer in England