Sandra Gidley

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Sandra Gidley.

Sandra Julia Gidley (born March 26, 1957) is a British politician, is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Romsey.

[edit] Biography

Born Sandra Julia Rawson in Rosset, Denbighshire in Wales, she was educated widely at the Eggars Grammar School, Alton, Hampshire; the Afcent International School in Brunssum, Netherlands; and the Windsor School, Hamm, Germany. She finished her education at the University of Bath where she was awarded a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree in 1978.

In 1979 she joined Badham Chemists as a pharmacist in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, until she was appointed as a pharmacy manager with GK Chemists in Gloucester in 1980. She became a locum pharmacist in 1982 before joining Safeway as a supermarket pharmacy manager in 1992, and joined Tesco in the same position in 1999 where she remained until her election to Westminster.

She joined the Liberal Democrats in 1994, was elected as a counillor to the Test Valley Borough Council in 1995, and in 1997 became the youngest ever female Mayor of Romsey. She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2000 Romsey by-election caused by the death of the Conservative MP Michael Colvin in a house fire at his Tangley home on February 24, 2000.[1] She won the by-election, on May 4, with a majority of 3,311 votes and has remained the MP there since, although in 2005 her majority was dramatically reduced to only 125 votes. She made her maiden speech on May 16, 2000. [2]

She was appointed to the frontbench by Charles Kennedy after the 2001 General Election as a spokeswoman on health. She was also the party's spokeswoman on women's issues and older people from 2001, with a seat in the Lib Dem shadow cabinet. After her significant role in the campaign to remove Charles Kennedy from the Lib Dem leadership she was dropped from the shadow cabinet by new leader Sir Menzies Campbell in March 2006, but remained a frontbencher, speaking on health matters. In September 2006 she resigned her role as chair of the Gender Balance Taskforce, publicly citing her wafer thin 125 majority and her need to retain her seat at the next election as the reason behind her resignation. She also criticised the lack of funding available to the project, yet the following day it was announced there was to be £200,000 of funding for female candidates at the next General Election.

She has been married to Bill Gidley since 1979 and they have a son and a daughter and live in Romsey. She enjoys a tough game of badminton, and lists reading, cookery, and the theatre amongst her hobbies, and is a supporter of Macmillan Cancer Relief.