Barbara Follett

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Barbara Follett MP
Barbara Folett speaking at the pre-launch of LGBT History Month 08 at the Royal Courts of Justice - 26 November 2007
Minister for Culture and Tourism
Incumbent
Assumed office  4 October 2008 (as Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism)
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Margaret Hodge
Member of Parliament for Stevenage
Incumbent
Assumed office  1 May 1997
Preceded by	Tim Wood
Majority	3,139 (7.5%)
Born	25 December 1942 (1942-12-25) (age 66) Kingston, Jamaica
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Ken Follett
Alma mater	London School of Economics

Daphne Barbara Follett (born 25 December 1942, Kingston, Jamaica as Daphne Barbara Hubbard) is a British politician - she is the Labour Member of Parliament for Stevenage, which she first won at the 1997 general election. She is married to author Ken Follett. Follett is currently the Minister for Culture and Tourism at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Follett and her husband have been referred to as champagne socialists in the media due to the contrast between their political views and their extravagant lifestyle.^[1]

Contents 1 Background 2 Political career 3 Brass Eye 4 Expenses Controversies 5 Personal Life 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Background

Barbara Follett was born Daphne Barbara Hubbard in Kingston, Jamaica 25 December 1942 where her father was an insurance executive. In 1946 the family returned, first to Jersey then in 1947 to Billericay, Essex. In 1952 the family moved to Ethiopia. In 1957 after an unfortunate incident involving her father, the family went to Cape Town in South Africa. She began a University degree in Art, but in 1962 had to give it up and started work with Barclays Bank.

She married Richard Turner in 1963 and they went to Paris where she worked for the Berlitz School of Languages. They returned to South Africa in 1966 to run his mother's fruit farm in Stellenbosch. In 1969 she started working for Kupugani, an organisation that provided cheap food for the poor.

In 1970, on the breakdown of her marriage, she became acting Regional Secretary at the Institute of Race Relations. She worked again for Kupugani from 1971 to 1978. After a brief marriage to Gerald Stonestreet, she married architect Les Broer. In 1978, shortly after her ex-husband Richard was assassinated, the family fled back to England, living at Farnham in Surrey, where she worked for the Centre for International Briefing, and joined the Labour Party.

[edit] Political career

Follett stood unsuccessfully as Labour candidate for Woking in the 1983 general election. In 1985 she married author Ken Follett. From 1984 to 1992 she was a freelance lecturer and consultant, contesting Epsom and Ewell for Labour in 1987. She joined the Fawcett Society and the National Alliance of Women's Organisations and jointly founded the Labour Women's Network in 1987. She obtained a BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics, and was Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research 1993 to 1997. She became a patron of Action on Pre-Eclampsia.

The 1997 General Election saw Follet elected as MP for Stevenage. She has served on many groups and committees, and is a member of the Fabian Society. In November 2005, she became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell. In June 2007 she was promoted to become Minister for the East of England and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Government Equalities Office supporting the Minister for Women and Equality Harriet Harman. Following Gordon Brown's cabinet reshuffle of 3 October 2008, Follett was made Minister of Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport replacing Margaret Hodge who went on compassionate leave caring for her ill husband. In the reshuffle of June 2009 Follett lost her responsibility for Creative Industries, which passed to the new Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the department, Sion Simon. She continues with her tourism and culture portfolios.

[edit] Brass Eye

In 2001 Follett appeared in the television satire programme Brass Eye which satirised media hysteria towards the issue of paedophilia. In the programme she was duped into giving fake warnings about an online game called Pantu the dog, claiming on camera that a paedophile had converted the dogs eye into a webcam in order to see the child player. Follett went on to demonstrate how the paedophile would wear a t-shirt with a small illustration of a child's body on it, in order to disguise themselves as another child and how the paedophiles get children to press their faces against the screen and then use special gloves to feel the child.^[2] Follett complained to the BSC and ITC about being duped into appearing into the programme. The BSC noted that the programme makers had deliberately given warning signals to suggest the material might be dubious and thus rejected Follett's complaints against the show as it successfully revealed the dangers of how public figures were willing to speak "with apparent authority about matters they do not understand".^[3]

[edit] Expenses Controversies

In May 2009 following the release of details of MPs expenses it emerged that the taxpayer had paid in excess of £1,600 for window cleaning of Follett's London flat in a single year.^[4] Further still, the invoices for the work were addressed to her husband.^[5] In a different article, the same paper alleged that she claimed more than £25,000 for security patrols at her London home after she was mugged.^[6] Her previous husband - a prominent anti-apartheid activist - was assassinated in their daughters' bedroom in 1978.^[7]

Follett was also criticised for claiming £120,000 in expenses from the taxpayer over 6 years to pay for a London flat when she already owned one property in the capital. Further still, commuting to London from her main home in Stevenage takes less than 30 minutes by rail. ^[8]

[edit] Personal Life

She is married to Ken Follett. They own two properties in London, one in Hertfordshire, a property in Cape Town and a holiday home in Antigua.^[8]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Barbara Follett official site
• [2] Government Equalities Office
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Barbara Follett MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Barbara Follett MP
• The Public Whip - Barbara Follett MP voting record
• Childhood memories

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Timothy Wood	Member of Parliament for Stevenage 1997 – present	Incumbent