| The Right Honourable The Baroness Tonge |
|
|---|---|
| Baroness Tonge in Liverpool | |
| Member of Parliament for Richmond Park |
|
| In office 1 May 1997 – 5 May 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | Constituency Created |
| Succeeded by | Susan Kramer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jennifer Louise Smith 19 February 1941 Walsall, England |
| Political party | Liberal Democrats |
| Spouse(s) | Dr Keith Tonge |
| Children | 3 |
| Residence | Kew, Herault and Pembrokeshire |
| Alma mater | University College London |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Doctor |
Jennifer Louise Tonge, Baroness Tonge (born Jennifer Louise Smith, 19 February 1941) is a politician in the United Kingdom. She was Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond Park in London from 1997 to 2005.
Contents |
Born in Walsall in the West Midlands, her parents were both school teachers.[1] She attended Dudley Girls High School from 1957 to 1959. She trained to be a doctor at University College Hospital, gaining an MB and BS in 1964. She is also MFFP (Membership of the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care of the RCOG). From 1968 to 1978, she worked in General Practice and Family Planning. From 1980 to 1985, she worked as Senior Medical Officer in Women's Services in Ealing. She managed Community Health Services in Ealing from 1992 to 1996.
Before her election to Parliament, Tonge was a councillor in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames from 1981 to 1990 and served as a committee chair for four years.
Tonge was selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Richmond constituency at the 1992 General Election. It was considered to be the party's most winnable seat but Tonge failed to be elected.[2]
She was a Member of Parliament for Richmond Park from 1997 to 2005. While in the Commons she was Liberal Democrat spokesperson on International Development from 1999 to 2003, and then the spokesperson for children from 2003 to 2004.[3]
In 2002 she made a notable contribution to the Creationism – Evolution debate in the UK by asking Prime Minister Tony Blair if he was "happy to allow the teaching of creationism alongside Darwin's theory of evolution in state schools". The Prime Minister replied that he supported a "diverse school system", triggering a row over the issue.[4]
Tonge lost her daughter in an electrical accident in 2004[5] and retired from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election to help look after her two young grandchildren. Her replacement as Lib Dem candidate was Susan Kramer, who held the seat.
On 23 June 2005 she was made a life peer as Baroness Tonge, of Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames,[6] which entitles her to a seat in the House of Lords.
From 8 January 2009 to 12 February 2010 she was the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Health. She is very strongly pro-stem cell research and has stated so in the House of Lords.[7] She is also pro-choice.[8]
In March 2009 Tonge joined a six-person delegation of British politicians which met with Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal in Syria. Tonge told an interviewer that their goal was to force the British government to talk to Hamas and pressure the United States to do likewise. She stated "You don't make peace by talking to your friends. You make peace by talking to your enemies," and said she knew that her meeting with Meshaal might be considered illegal and lead to her arrest. "That is one of the risks that you take," she said.[9]
In January 2004, while still a Member of Parliament, Tonge was asked to step down as children's spokeswoman by Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy after saying of Palestinian suicide bombers: "If I had to live in that situation - and I say that advisedly - I might just consider becoming one myself." Tonge refused to apologise: "I was just trying to say how, having seen the violence and the humiliation and the provocation that the Palestinian people live under every day and have done since their land was occupied by Israel, I could understand..."[10][11]
Tonge said in 2006: "The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a grip on our party." In response, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell chastised Tonge, saying her remarks were "unacceptable" and had "clear anti-Semitic connotations." An all-party group of lords led by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, said her comments "evoked a classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theory."[12] In response Tonge said that professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's article "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" that appeared in the March 23, 2006 issue of The London Review of Books supported her assertion that the "'Israel lobby' had a disproportionate voice in Anglo-American foreign policy." She also emphasized that her comments "were about the Israeli lobby in politics. They were a big distance from being about Jewishness or anti-Semitism." [13][14]
During November 2008, Tonge, along with Lord Ahmed, Clare Short, and some MEPs, broke through the Blockade of Gaza by boat and visited Gaza.[15] The European parliamentarians' trip as it was called ran from 6–11 November 2008, and consisted of 12 MPs coming from Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. They were there at the invitation of the "European Campaign to lift the Siege of Gaza".[16] Tonge compared the situation in Gaza to Apartheid.[17]
On 12 January 2009, Tonge asked in the House of Lords about investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying:
"Is the Minister aware that Mrs Pillay, the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has spoken of war crimes being committed in Gaza? Will the Government, therefore, show leadership and call for the immediate—and I mean immediate—establishment by the United Nations Security Council of an independent fact-finding commission to Palestine to investigate all breaches of international law?"[18]
On the 15 January 2009 edition of Question Time, she debated the Gaza conflict with Stephen Pollard, the editor of The Jewish Chronicle.[19]
On 12 February 2010, she was sacked by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg after lending credence to allegations of organ harvesting by Israeli Defence Force medical teams after the 2010 Haiti earthquake by suggesting an independent inquiry should be established. Nick Clegg said the comments were "wrong, distasteful and provocative" and dismissed her from her post. He said she had apologised "unreservedly" for any offence she had caused. The allegations were originally printed by the news website The Palestine Telegraph, of which Tonge is a patron. In an interview with The Jewish Chronicle Tonge stated that "To prevent allegations such as these - which have already been posted on You Tube - going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti."[20][21] Writer Damian Thompson also criticised Tonge, asking Nick Clegg to take the additional step of withdrawing her party whip.[22]
She met her future husband, Dr Keith Tonge, while dissecting a corpse in 1959[23] and married him on 23 May 1964 in Wednesbury. He is a consultant neuroradiologist at St Thomas's Hospital in Lambeth and they have three grown children. The couple live in Kew and three grandchildren and also own properties in Herault and Pembrokeshire,[23][24][25]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Richmond Park 1997–2005 |
Succeeded by Susan Kramer |