Jody Dunn

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Jody Dunn (née Jody Beveridge July 27, 1969) is a British Liberal Democrat politician, and a barrister specialising in family law.

[edit] Professional career

After leaving school at 17 and working as a DJ and radio presenter, she returned to education and graduated from the University of St Andrews in 1996 with honours in Spanish and International relations. While at university she served as Students' Association Welfare Officer (1993-94) and UMC Convenor of Debates and President of the Union Debating Society (1994-1995). She subsequently studied law at City University and the Inns of Court School of Law. She started working in Criminal Law before specialising in Family Law, and works in courts across the North East.

[edit] Political career

She was chosen by the local Liberal Democrats as their candidate in the Hartlepool by-election, 2004. Her campaign was fought largely on the strength of her personality and a commitment to "save Hartlepool's hospital", although controversy arose over whether there was in fact any threat to it. The Labour Party drew attention to the fact that she had her main home in Gainford, County Durham, while renting a flat on Hartlepool marina in order to claim a local connection. Her defence that the previous MP had not been a local resident was only partly successful. She had also said that she worked principally in the courts at Hartlepool and Middlesbrough. However, the Labour Party pointed out that when she stood for Durham County Council in 2001 she had made a similar claim about Bishop Auckland county court.

Dunn was criticised for a comment on her campaign blog that everyone she met on one street "was either drunk, flanked by an angry dog, or undressed" for which she refused to apologise; the Labour campaign did its best to publicise the remark. Although defeated by Labour's Iain Wright, who had a majority of 2,033, the Liberal Democrat vote rose by 19 percentage points. As she was making her speech at the declaration, the Fathers 4 Justice candidate Paul Watson threw purple powder over her to protest at her work as a family law barrister; he was arrested under suspicion of assault but not charged.

She subsequently stood again for Hartlepool in the General Election of May 5, 2005, coming second to Iain Wright again, though Labour had a majority of over 7,000. In autumn 2006 it was reported that her membership of the Liberal Democrats had lapsed.