Veronica Mary Tutt Hardstaff Billings (born 23 October 1941) is a British politician, who has served as a City councillor in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

and as a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP). A member of the Labour Party, she is on the left of the party.

Education and career

Hardstaff went to the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

where she obtained a degree in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, and then studied at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

. Hardstaff worked as a teacher of German and French, first at High Storrs Girls' Grammar School in

, then at St Peter's Secondary Modern School. In 1971 she was elected as a Labour Party candidate to Sheffield City Council in

Walkley Walkley is a suburb of Sheffield, England, west of Burngreave, south of Hillsborough and north-east of Crookes. The area consists mainly of Victorian stone-fronted terraced housing and has a relatively high student population. It also has a ...

ward, becoming a full-time councillor; she served for seven years. In 1977 she went back to work at Knottingley High School, moving in 1979 to the Frecheville School in Sheffield, and from 1986 to the Birley School. At the 1992 UK general election she was the Labour Party candidate for the Sheffield Hallam constituency, but finished third.

1994 European election

At the 1994 European Parliament election, Hardstaff was the Labour Party candidate in Lincolnshire and Humberside South. This constituency was made up of seven

constituencies An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

for the United Kingdom Parliament, of which six were held by the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. The Labour Party considered winning this election would be taking "a prize Tory scalp". In the end, Hardstaff was elected as

with a majority of 13,745.

European Parliament

She was chosen by her colleagues as Chairwoman 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 ...

. In January 1995, she abstained from signing a declaration against a change in

Clause IV Clause IV is part of the Labour Party Rule Book, which sets out the aims and values of the (UK) Labour Party. The original clause, adopted in 1918, called for common ownership of industry, and proved controversial in later years; Hugh Gaitskell a ...

of the Labour Party constitution, despite 36 Labour MEPs doing so. With an agricultural constituency she took up farming issues, calling for a new approach to food quality after the

BSE BSE may refer to: Medicine * Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, a neurodegenerative disease of cattle * Breast self-examination Stock exchanges * Bahrain Stock Exchange, Bahrain * Baku Stock Exchange, Azerbaijan * B ...

scandal including stricter regulation of

intensive farming Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of ag ...

. When Lincolnshire was described as a prosperous area, she wrote to object based on the low wages paid to some farmworkers.Letters, ''New Statesman'', 3 April 1998. She was also Vice-Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee between the European Parliament and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

from 1995. For the 1999 European Parliament election, the electoral system was changed to list-based proportional representation. Hardstaff was placed at sixth out of seven on the regional list for

Yorkshire and the Humber Yorkshire and the Humber is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The population in 2011 was 5,284,000 with its largest settlements being Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, and York. It is ...

, a place which made it practically impossible for her to be re-elected; this low placing was attributed to her alliance with the left.Mike Phipps,
Euro carve-up dumps left
, ''Labour Left Briefing'', November 1998. In the election, Labour won only three seats in the region.

Sheffield City council

In 2002, Hardstaff was elected to

Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Contr ...

for a second term, from

ward. In May 2005 she was appointed to the cabinet of Sheffield as member for Children's Services, responsible both for education and for social services to children. She supported plans to bring in a City Academy to replace an existing secondary school, sponsored by a Christian educational charity; she also defended the use of the

Private Finance Initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 199 ...

as a pragmatic way of supporting investment. She left the Sheffield cabinet in May 2006 and in May 2007 was defeated in her re-election bid in Walkley. She stood again in Walkley ward in 2008, but was defeated. At the same election Hardstaff's brother, Chris Tutt, was re-elected to Sheffield City Council, in

Mosborough Mosborough is a village in the City of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of Derbyshire, the village was named after The Moss river which flows through the village. During the late 19th century and 20th century, the villa ...

ward, for the Liberal Democrats.

Personal life

She married in 1964 and had a son and daughter, but divorced in 1977, retaining her married name. Since 2007 she has been married to Rev. Canon Alan Billings, the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire, and Deputy Leader from 1980-86 of Sheffield City Council .

References

*"Who's Who", A & C Black {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardstaff, Veronica 1941 births Living people Alumni of the University of Manchester Councillors in Sheffield Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MEPs MEPs for England 1994–1999 Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates University of Cologne alumni 20th-century women MEPs for England Women councillors in England