Lynne Featherstone1

Biography

Lynne Featherstone was re-elected MP for Hornsey and Wood Green in May 2010 with a majority of 6,875 votes.

She was born and brought up in North London and educated at the Highgate Primary School, the independent South Hampstead High School on Maresfield Gardens and gained a Diploma in Communication and Design at Oxford Brookes University. She has lived in the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency for over thirty years. Her family's wealth is generated from a family business started by her parents - the Ryness chain of hardware and electrical shops in London. She lives in Highgate on the western side of the constituency. She is from a Jewish background.

She was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Haringey in 1998 for Muswell Hill ward. She and her two colleagues (June Andersen and Julia Glenn) were the first three Liberal Democrat councillors to be elected in the borough. She was leader of Liberal Democrat Group (and thereby Leader of the Opposition) on the council 1998-2002.

She stood down from Haringey Council at the May 2006 elections. She played a substantial role in the May 2006 election campaign in Haringey where Labour's majority was cut from 25 to 3, with 30 Labour councillors elected to 27 Liberal Democrats.

From 2000 until 2005, when she stood down, Featherstone was a member of the London Assembly. She was replaced as a member of the London Assembly by Geoff Pope. In 2005, a speech she made pointing out that local councillors receive an allowance which they could use to free up time to do council work by hiring domestic cleaners and babysitters was used against her by opponents. A transcript of this speech was reported in the Evening Standard newspaper.

Featherstone was promoted by some as a potential Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London in the 2008 election. In response to a poll on the Liberal Democrat Voice website, she ruled herself out, stating that, of the other people in the poll, she would back Brian Paddick.

Lynne Featherstone first contested the Hornsey and Wood Green seat at the 1997 General Election where she finished in third place some 25,998 votes behind the winner Barbara Roche. She again fought Hornsey and Wood Green at the 2001 General Election, moving into second place and reducing Roche's majority to 10,614. In one of the largest swings at the 2005 General Election, Featherstone ousted Roche with a majority of 2,395 votes.

She made her maiden speech in Parliament on 24 May 2005. She was appointed as a junior home affairs spokesperson by Charles Kennedy in 2005, and to the environment audit select committee. She was co-chair of Chris Huhne's unsuccessful campaign to be leader of the Liberal Democrats following the resignation of Kennedy in January 2006. In March, following the election of Menzies Campbell as party leader, she was promoted to number two in the Liberal Democrat home affairs team and made London spokesperson. In December 2006, she succeeded Susan Kramer as the Liberal Democrat Shadow International Development Secretary, and two months later was succeeded by Tom Brake as London spokesperson.

In 2007, following the resignation of Menzies Campbell, she again chaired Chris Huhne's leadership election campaign. On 20 December 2007 the new Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who defeated Chris Huhne, made her Youth and Equalities spokesperson.

Constituency

Hornsey and Wood Green

Constituency Address

Constituency Tel

020 8340 5459

Date of Birth

20 December 1951

Email

lynne@lynnefeatherstone.org

Party

liberal democrats

Personal Website

www.lynnefeatherstone.org

Westminster Address

House of Commons LONDON SW1A 0AA

Westminster Tel

0207 219 8401