Louise Baldock

Louise Baldock (born 31 August 1965) is a British Labour Party and Co-operative Party politician. In 2013 she was nominated as the Labour Party candidate for the Stockton South parliamentary constituency^[1] from an all-women shortlist. Baldock will face incumbent Conservative MP James Wharton at the 2015 parliamentary election, who gained the seat from Labour in 2010 with a majority of 332.

Early life

Baldock was born in the West Midlands but moved to Yarm in 1978 with her family. She attended Conyers School in Yarm, and Teesside Polytechnic in Middlesbrough, graduating with a BA in Humanities.^[2]

Career outside politics

After graduation, Baldock worked for Crossley Ferguson Builders Merchants in Stockton on Tees before working for five years in a variety of roles at Stevenson of Oxbridge Ltd in Stockton on Tees and Coulby Newham.^[2] She worked in the marketing team at Wilson Henry LLP from 2008 – 2012 before setting up her own marketing company. Baldock was the membership secretary for East Liverpool Business Forum until August 2013 which aims to promote small businesses, home workers and the self-employed.^[2]

Political career

Early political career

Baldock became actively involved in politics in 1992 supporting Labour’s candidate John Scott in Stockton South. She later became a Labour Party organiser in Colne Valley, Calder Valley and Batley & Spen. Louise also became the Deputy Regional Director in the North West, and ran the campaign in Sheffield to retake the local council. After the 2001 general election Louise worked for three Members of Parliament supporting them in their constituency offices.

Work as a Councillor

In 2004 Baldock moved to Liverpool, becoming a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee. She became a Liverpool City Councillor in 2006 where she was Chair of Finance and Resources until her term ended in May 2014.

In April 2009, Baldock resigned from her position as ethics spokeswoman for the Labour Group on Liverpool City Council after the Standards Board for England wrote a report in response to a complaint from a Liberal councillor which was then leaked to the Liverpool Echo. She had written an article on her blog in 2007 where she described local Liberals and Liberal Democrats as "opportunistic bastards."^[3] The Standards Board said it would not be taking any further action or investigating the complaint. However, Baldock subsequently announced^[4] her resignation from the position as a result of the publicity and also her seat on the local standards committee saying that she did not want to damage the good work the council had achieved in promoting ethical standards.^[5]

In February 2014, Baldock was engaged in a lengthy conflict of words on social networking site Twitter with the chairman of Thornaby Labour branch, Terry Murphy.^[6] Baldock called on Murphy to "resign" from his position as chairman, adding that he was "horrible", "rude" and "belligerent." Murphy then questioned why Baldock was both a resident of Stockton and a councillor in Liverpool, suggesting it was because of her £19,416 a year member's allowance.^[6][7]

'Labour Against The Bedroom Tax'

Baldock was Vice Chair of Venture Housing Association until September 2013.^[8] Identifying changes to housing benefit contained within the Welfare Reform Act 2012 as the "defining issue of the last 20 years",^[9] she set up 'Labour Against the Bedroom Tax'.^[10] Although intended to raise awareness of the impact of welfare reform, the grassroots campaign also seeks to pressurise the Labour Party to make a firm commitment to restore the subsidy in the event that they win the 2015 General Election.

Baldock stepped down as a Councillor for Kensington and Fairfield Ward in May 2014 to contest her home constituency of Stockton South.^[11]

Stockton South

On 6 July 2013 Baldock was nominated as Labour and Co-operative parliamentary candidate for her home constituency of Stockton South, currently held by Conservative MP James Wharton. She was one of 15 Labour candidates each given financial support of £10,000 by Lord Matthew Oakeshott the former Liberal Democrat in January 2015. ^[12]

In August 2013, Baldock expressed her discontent with negative perceptions of Stockton-on-Tees in an article for the Guardian's 'Northerner Blog'^[13] as part of a bid to keep the town out of the “Crap Towns Returns” book.

Baldock has been campaigning to prevent the building of houses on the green wedge surrounding Ingleby Barwick, having submitted formal objections, attended several planning committees to speak for residents and launched petitions online and offline to call for Stockton Borough Council and Ingleby Barwick Town Council to oppose this.^[14]

Baldock has been working with local credit unions across the Tees Valley to share best practice and encourage new borrowers and savers to stay out of the clutches of loan sharks.^[15] She has called for the establishment of an Armed Forces Credit Union to emulate the successful Police Credit Union whose Stockton branch she visited in August 2014.

Tony Blair Donation

Baldock courted significant attention for her receipt of a £1,000 donation from Tony Blair in March 2015. ^[16] Other Labour candidates had rejected the donation due to Blair's links to the War in Iraq. When questioned about this Baldock said "Yes I have received a donation from Tony Blair and yes I accepted it and if the candidate in Scotland doesn't want hers, I will happily take that too. We need every penny we can get to fight the Tories."^[17]

Personal life

Baldock who was married in the 1980s moved to Thornaby-on-Tees and then Stockton-on-Tees. After a period living in West Yorkshire and in Liverpool, she now lives in Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees. In January 1999 Baldock's fiancé Michael Price died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty flue, which has since led Baldock to raise awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide.^[18]

Baldock came out as bisexual in 2009 at a march against homophobia in Liverpool,^[19] and actively campaigns for LGBT rights. She has compared the drive for sexual equality to the UK smoking ban, suggesting that legislative change can accelerate the evolution of social attitudes. Baldock is supportive of same sex marriage.^[20]

In June 2013, independent production company First Take released footage gathered as part of its Pink Past and Present project including a film of Baldock's experience of coming out.^[21]

External links

• Official website
• Louise Baldock on Twitter
• Louise Baldock on Facebook

References