Gwyneth Dunwoody

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Gwyneth Dunwoody (born in Fulham, London, December 12, 1930, as Gwyneth Patricia Phillips), is the longest-serving woman Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, having been the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Exeter between 1966 and 1970, then MP for Parliamentary Constituency of Crewe from February 1974 to 1983 then following boundary changes, for the Crewe and Nantwich Parliamentary Constituency since 1983. That year, she was an unsuccessful candidate for the deputy leadership election of the Labour Party coming fourth (last) with 1.3% of the Electoral College, which was won by Roy Hattersley. She was also a Member of the European Parliament between 1975 and 1979, at a time when MEPs were nominated by national parliaments — MEPs have been directly elected since 1979. If she remains an MP until the expected end of the Parliament elected in 2005, she will become the oldest woman MP ever, and will exceed the 34 year record for continuous service for a woman MP, currently held by Barbara Castle, and the 38 year record for interrupted service by a woman MP, currently held by Dame Irene Ward.

In October 2000, she was a candidate for the speakership of the House of Commons. The election was won by Michael Martin MP.

As a member for a constituency with a strong connection with the railway industry, she has considerable expertise on transport matters and has been Chair of the House of Commons' Transport Select Committee since 1997. In this role she has been a thorn in the flesh of the government, and an attempt by the Government Whips to remove her from the Chair of the TSC after the 2001 general election led to a revolt by back-bench members of Parliament, which led to her reinstatement. During her tenure of the chair of that committee, it has been criticised for confusing volume of output with quality, and thus diminishing the authority of the committee and the respect in which its reports are held.^{[citation needed]} For example, the committee's report on the railway industry published on April 1, 2004 was described by one railway industry figure as displaying prejudices and a quality of analysis of the kind you normally get from hairdressers and taxi-drivers^{[citation needed]}. Since then, the membership of the committee has changed several times (most notably after the 2005 general election), but Mrs Dunwoody has remained in the chair.

She is President of Labour Friends of Israel.

She belongs to an experienced political dynasty: her father, Morgan Phillips, was General Secretary of the Labour Party between 1944 and 1962; her mother, Norah Phillips was a life peer in the House of Lords; both her grandmothers were suffragettes; her late husband, John Dunwoody, whom she divorced, was a Labour MP from 1966 until 1970; while their daughter, Tamsin Dunwoody-Kneafsey, is a member of the National Assembly for Wales and as of 2005 is Deputy Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks in the Welsh Assembly Government.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Rolf Dudley-Williams	Member of Parliament for Exeter 1966–1970	Succeeded by Sir John Hannam
Preceded by Scholefield Allen	Member of Parliament for Crewe February 1974–1983	Succeeded by (constituency abolished)
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for Crewe and Nantwich 1983 – present	Incumbent