Lynne Jones

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Lynne Mary Jones (born 26 April 1951, Birmingham) is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for the Birmingham Selly Oak constituency.

Born in Birmingham, Lynne Jones studied biochemistry at the University of Birmingham, eventually earning her Ph.D. in 1979. She also has a post-graduate degree in Housing Studies from Birmingham Polytechnic (now the University of Central England). She has worked in both science and housing, and was a Councillor on Birmingham City Council representing Kings Norton ward before being elected to the House of Commons at the 1992 general election.

She is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and has taken part in almost all of the backbench rebellions against the Labour government. She is also Chair of the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism, and is a patron of Press for Change. She is married, and has two children.

In February 2006 she announced her intention to stand against Gordon Brown in the Labour Party leadership contest expected to follow Prime Minister Tony Blair's resignation if nobody else did, so that Brown could not simply be "crowned". Subsequently, Socialist Campaign Group Chair John McDonnell has announced his candidacy for the leadership.

Following boundary alterations in Birmingham, which reduce its parliamentary representation from eleven to ten seats, Jones had planned to apply for selection to the redrawn Selly Oak constituency which contains wards from both the current Selly Oak and Hall Green constituencies. However, in January 2007 she announced that she will not be standing for Parliament at the next General Election.