| Ann, Lady Winterton | |
|---|---|
| Lady Winterton (right) in 1990 with Ian Smith (seen standing). | |
| Member of Parliament for Congleton |
|
| In office 9 June 1983 – 6 May 2010 |
|
| Preceded by | Constituency Created |
| Succeeded by | Fiona Bruce |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 March 1941 Sutton Coldfield, England, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Sir Nicholas Winterton |
Jane Ann, Lady Winterton (née Hodgson) (born 6 March 1941 in Sutton Coldfield) is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Congleton from 1983 to 2010. She is married to Sir Nicholas Winterton, who also served as a Conservative MP representing the neighbouring constituency of Macclesfield.
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Winterton was educated at Erdington Grammar School for Girls. Following her election to represent Congleton in 1983, she was a member of several select committees, including Agriculture (1987–1997), the Chairman's Panel (1992–1998) and the National Drug Strategy (1998–2001), Social Security (2000–2001) and the Unopposed Bills Panel since 1997. She is a representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and a Patron of Cheshire National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She is also President of the Congleton Pantomime Society.
Along with her husband, she managed to ask questions at Tony Blair's last Prime Minister's Questions in 2007.
Winterton became Shadow Rural Affairs Minister in 2001,[1] and was sacked the next year for telling the following joke at a rugby club dinner:
In February 2004 she had the Conservative whip removed (that is to say, she was suspended from the party) for telling the following joke (which alluded to the recent death of twenty-three illegal immigrant Chinese cockle-pickers in Morecambe Bay) at a Whitehall private dinner party to improve Anglo-Danish relations, and refusing to apologise:
A month later, Winterton apologised for the joke, and had the whip restored.[4] Lord Taylor of Warwick, the only black Conservative peer in the House of Lords, condemned her being restored and said she was not fit to be an MP.[5]
Nick Palmer, Labour MP for Broxtowe, who was at the dinner, told BBC Radio 4's Today: "People were a bit stunned really. It was a very low-key friendly dinner. I was very sorry for the host — it was just a group of people discussing Danish issues. Most people make a bad joke now and then, but to make a joke about people who have just died in particularly horrible circumstances — the contrast between standing on the beach in the dark being drowned and sitting round a comfortable table making jokes about them is just, just horrible."[6]
Michael Howard, leader of the Conservatives, said in a statement: "Ann Winterton's remarks about the tragic deaths in Morecambe Bay were completely unacceptable. Such sentiments have no place in the Conservative Party. I deplore them and I apologise for them on behalf of my party."[6]
In September 2005 (following the May general election) Winterton said she felt that Britain is a country where:[7][8]
Together with Nicholas Winterton, Ann has been investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, who has concluded that they misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. The Wintertons transferred the ownership of the flat into a family trust to avoid the inheritance tax threshold. Since 2002 they had paid the rent for living in the flat from their MPs' expenditure. The Wintertons had declared their intentions to the Commons' Fees Office.[9] On 25 May 2009 it was announced that both the Wintertons would stand down as MPs at the next General Election.[10] Winterton was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs expense details secret.[11]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Congleton 1983 – 2010 |
Succeeded by Fiona Bruce |