Jane Elizabeth Kennedy ( Hodgson; born 4 May 1958) is a British politician and the inaugural

Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner The Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner is the police and crime commissioner, an elected official tasked with setting out the way crime is tackled by Merseyside Police in the English County of Merseyside. The post was created in November 201 ...

. She was

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 ...

(MP) for Liverpool Wavertree, formerly Liverpool Broadgreen, from

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. Formerly a member of the Government, on 8 June 2009, she returned to the backbenches leaving her position as Minister of State for Farming and the Environment at the

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United K ...

. Originally a member of the Labour Party, she left the party in March 2019 after the resignation of her successor,

Luciana Berger Luciana Clare Berger (; born 13 May 1981) is a British former Member of Parliament who was MP for Liverpool Wavertree from 2010 to 2019. Initially a member of Labour Co-op, in 2019 she left and co-founded The Independent Group, later Change UK ...

MP, and the announcement that former Liverpool City councillor Derek Hatton - a former member of the Militant tendency - had been re-admitted to party membership.

Early life

She was born in

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is th ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

, and attended Haughton Comprehensive School (now part of the 'Education Village') on ''Rockwell Avenue'' in Haughton Le Skerne, then Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington. She studied Chemistry at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

from 1976 until 1978, however did not graduate from her studies, deciding to marry and settle with her family in Liverpool. She worked in social care for

Liverpool City Council Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards. The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Mayor ...

from 1979–88, and in 1988 she became a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

Area Organiser for the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) until 1992. In Liverpool she had been active in ending the

Militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

group's infiltration of the Liverpool Labour Party.

Member of Parliament

Kennedy had been a

since the 1992 general election, when she was elected for the Liverpool Broadgreen constituency. She served as a member of the social security

select committee Select committee may refer to: *Select committee (parliamentary system), a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues *Select or special committee (United States Congress) *Select ...

from 1992 to 1994, and in 1995 she was appointed as a Labour

whip 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 ...

. Her constituency was abolished for the 1997 general election, but she was returned to

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

for the new Liverpool Wavertree constituency. After Labour's victory in the 1997 election, she served as an assistant government whip until 1998 and as a government whip until 1999, sitting on the House of Commons administration select committee from 1997 until 1999. On 9 November 2009 she announced she would be standing down at the 2010 general election. It was announced in January 2010 the Wavertree Labour Party had picked

as the candidate to succeed her. This selection caused some controversy because Berger had stayed at Kennedy's home for a period before the selection, a home Kennedy shares with her partner Peter Dowling, the local Labour Party's agent.

In government

Kennedy was appointed as a junior minister in the

Lord Chancellor's Department The Lord Chancellor's Department was a United Kingdom government department answerable to the Lord Chancellor with jurisdiction over England and Wales. Created in 1885 as the Lord Chancellor's Office with a small staff to assist the Lord Chancell ...

from 1999 until 2001, when she became a

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...

in the Northern Ireland Office with responsibility for security and the justice system. After the suspension of the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameralism, Unicameral , hou ...

in October 2002, she also became responsible for education and employment in the province. In 2003, she was made a

Privy Councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

. She transferred to the Department for Work and Pensions in 2004 and then to the Department of Health after the 2005 general election, remaining a Minister of State. She left the government on 5 May 2006 during a wide-ranging reshuffle. She was initially thought by journalists to have been sacked; however, she subsequently said she took the opportunity to resign from the government in light of concerns about the impact of the government's policies on the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

. In Gordon Brown's first government since becoming

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 is not ...

, Kennedy was appointed as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, becoming the third ranked minister in the Treasury, taking on the ministerial responsibilities of the old Paymaster General,

Dawn Primarolo Dawn Primarolo, Baroness Primarolo, (born 2 May 1954) is a Labour Party (UK), British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Bristol South (UK Parliament constituency), Bristol South ...

. On 5 October 2008, Kennedy was promoted to

at the

with the portfolio of Farming and the Environment. She resigned that position in June 2009 in protest at Gordon Brown's Leadership.

Police and Crime Commissioner

Kennedy was elected to the post of

on 15 November 2012. She was re-elected in 2016.

Expenses row

In 2009 the Houses of Parliament started publishing MP expenses. Her partner Peter Dowling worked at her office handling research and parliamentary affairs, and was paid out of her parliamentary expenses.

Personal life

Jane married Malcolm Kennedy in 1977 in Knowsley; they divorced in 1998. They have two sons, Robert (born 1978) and Alan (born 1983). She currently lives with her partner Peter Dowling.

Notes

References

External links

Jane Kennedy's website
*

TheyWorkForYou.com - Jane Kennedy MP

BBC Politics

Video clips

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Jane 1958 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 People from Darlington Alumni of the University of Liverpool Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland Office junior ministers Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liverpool constituencies Police and crime commissioners in England People from Whitehaven Labour Party police and crime commissioners 20th-century British women politicians 21st-century British women politicians Women government ministers in the United Kingdom 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century English women 21st-century English people