Anne Jenkin, Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Jenkin of Kennington
Member of the House of Lords
Assumed office
27 January 2011
Personal details
Born Anne Caroline Strutt
(1955-12-08) 8 December 1955
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Bernard Jenkin (1988 - present)
Children 2

Anne Caroline Jenkin, Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (born 8 December 1955) is a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Early life

Jenkin was born Anne Caroline Strutt on 8 December 1955 to the Hon. Charles Strutt and the Hon. Jean Davidson. Her father is the son of the physicist the 4th Baron Rayleigh by his first wife, Lady Hilda Clements. Her mother is the daughter of the Conservative politician the 1st Viscount Davidson and the life peeress Baroness Northchurch.[1]

Political career

Jenkin stood for election as a Member of Parliament in Glasgow in the 1987 general election.[2] In 2005, she co-founded with Theresa May Women2Win, a campaign to increase the number of female Conservative MPs. She is currently its co-chair with Mark Harper.[3]

She founded the Conservative Friends of International Development in 2011.

She was created a life peer on 26 January 2011 as Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, of Hatfield Peverel in the County of Essex.[4] She was introduced to the House of Lords on 27 January 2011, where she sits on the Conservative benches.[5]

She has spoken in favour of equal marriage.[6][5]

Jenkin is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Women in Parliament, AgroEcology, Population Development and Reproductive Health, Obesity, Food Waste and Sustainable Resource.

In January 2018 Jenkin attracted media attention after criticising abuse received by Conservative candidates during the 2017 general election in a debate on social media regulation in the House of Lords. Jenkin cited the example of a candidate being abused as a "fucking Tory cunt" - this was believed to be the first time the word "cunt" has been used in the House of Lords.[7]

Controversy

In December 2014, she attracted controversy by suggesting that one of the causes of the rise of hunger and food bank use in the UK was because "poor people don't know how to cook". At the time of the statement, she was a member of the APPG on Food Poverty and Hunger which presented a report on food poverty which notes that there are now 4 million people in the UK struggling to afford food.[8] She later apologised for the remark, saying she was speaking without a script and had made a mistake:[9] "What I meant was as a society we have lost our ability to cook".[10]

Trustee Roles

Jenkin is a Trustee of WRAP Waste & Resources Action Programme, Cool Earth and Feeding Britain. She was previously a Trustee of UNICEF UK.

Jenkin is also a Founding Chancellor at Writtle University College.

In 2017, Jenkin was Chair of the Centre for Social Justice Working Group for 'Off the Scales: Tackling England's childhood obesity crisis.'

Personal life

Since 1988 she has been married to the Conservative Member of Parliament Bernard Jenkin, whose father was the Conservative life peer The Lord Jenkin of Roding.[11] Jenkin and her husband have two sons.[12]

Styles

  • Miss Anne Strutt (1955–1988)
  • The Hon. Mrs Bernard Jenkin (1988–2011)
  • The Rt. Hon. The Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (2011–present)

References

  1. ↑ thePeerage.com: Anne Caroline Strutt
  2. ↑ Childs, Sarah (2008). Women and British Party Politics: Descriptive, Substantive and Symbolic Representation. Routledge. p. 52. ISBN 9781134211586.
  3. ↑ "About us". Women2Win. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  4. ↑ "No. 59688". The London Gazette. 2 February 2011. p. 1745.
  5. 1 2 "Baroness Jenkin of Kennington". Membership of the House of Lords. Parliament. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  6. ↑ "Baroness Jenkin: 'Times have changed and my family would have been ashamed if I opposed equal marriage'". Pink News.
  7. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/c-word-lords-baroness-jenkin_uk_5a579934e4b0a57f282c48bd
  8. ↑ Griffin, Andrew (8 December 2014). "Baroness Jenkin: Tory peer claims poor people go hungry because they 'don't know how to cook'". The Independent. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Holehouse, Matthew (8 December 2014). "Poor going hungry because they can't cook, says Tory peer". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  10. ↑ "Tory peer apologises for saying 'poor can't cook'". BBC News. 8 December 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  11. ↑ Fitch, Rachel (22 November 2010). "MP's wife Anne Jenkin gets seat in House of Lords". The Daily Gazette. Retrieved 27 January 2011.
  12. ↑ Cohen, Tamara (8 December 2014). "Poor people go to food banks because they 'don't know how to cook', claims Tory peer Baroness Jenkin (who eats 4p porridge for breakfast)". Daily Mail. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
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