Janet Anderson

Biography

Janet Anderson lost her Rossendale and Darwen seat in May 2010 to the Conservatives' Jake Berry by 4,493 votes.

Janet Anderson has been the Labour Member of Parliament for Rossendale and Darwen since 1992. She was elected as the first woman to represent the constituency and the first ever Labour MP to represent Darwen with a majority of 120. Janet was re-elected in 1997, 2001 and 2005.

Janet inherited her interest in politics from her father, the late Tom Anderson, a Labour Party agent. She was brought up in the North East of England where her mother played the organ in the local Methodist chapel. Janet was educated at grammar school, the University of Westminster and the University of Nantes, studying languages and business studies. After leaving college, Janet worked on the Scotsman and Sunday Times newspapers.

In 1974, she first came to the House of Commons as constituency secretary to the then Member of Parliament for Blackburn, and Secretary of State for Health and Social Services, Barbara Castle (the late Baroness Castle of Blackburn). She subsequently worked for Rt. Hon. Jack Straw MP, Gordon Brown MP and as the Campaigns Officer for the Parliamentary Labour Party. Janet also ran her own public relations company, whose clients included Airbus Industrie, the Royal College of Nursing, the British Longwall Mining Company, Safeway plc and the Shopping Hours Reform Council.

Following her election to Parliament in 1992, Janet served on the Home Affairs Select Committee and as an Opposition Whip. She introduced two Private Members Bills which subsequently influenced government policy - one to make stalking a criminal offence, the other to establish a national register of paedophiles. She also served as an elected member of the House of Commons Commission and as secretary of the Tribune Group of Labour MPs. The Prime Minister appointed her as Shadow Minister for Women in 1996.

When the Labour Government was elected in 1997, Janet was appointed as a senior Government Whip, where her duties, as Vice Chamberlain to the Royal Household included writing daily to the Queen to inform Her Majesty about Parliamentary business and acting as the hostage on the day of the State Opening of Parliament. In 1998, the Prime Minister appointed Janet to the post of Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, a post she held up to 2001.

After the 2001 General Election, Janet chose to return to the backbenches to devote more time to her constituency of Rossendale and Darwen. Since then, she has increased the number of advice surgeries she holds each month to eight and concentrated on constituency issues. One such was the need to attract more NHS dentists to her constituency. Janet secured a Parliamentary debate on this which resulted in greater provision in Rossendale and Darwen. Janet also piloted through Parliament a Private Members Bill to make it an offence to use a handheld mobile telephone while driving a motor vehicle. The government has now introduced a similar offence.

Janet has subsequently served on the Home Affairs Select Committee, the Joint Committee on the Reform of the House of Lords and the pre-legislative scrutiny committee on the Gambling Bill, and as an elected member of the Labour Party's Parliamentary Committee.

Janet is currently a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, the House of Commons Administration Committee and the Speaker's Panel. She is the Secretary of the All Party Tourism Group, the ITV Group and Chair of the Intellectual Property Group and the Performers' Alliance Group. She has also served as a member of the North West Labour Party's Regional Board and is currently a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.

Janet is the mother of three children: James, an investment manager; David, a budding scriptwriter, and Kate, a drama student. Janet lives in Darwen in her constituency. Her interests are first and foremost her children and her responsibilities as Member of Parliament for Rossendale and Darwen. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, playing the piano, listening to opera, gardening and cooking Sunday roasts for her family.

Constituency

Rossendale and Darwen

Twitter

Constituency Address

731 Bacup Road, Waterfoot, Rossendale, BB4 7EU.

Constituency Tel

01706 220909

Date of Birth

6 December 1949.

Email

andersonj@parliament.uk

Party

Labour

Personal Website

http://www.janetanderson.co.uk/

Westminster Address

House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

Westminster Tel

020 7219 5375/6629