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Angela Watkinson

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Prime Minister
  
Nationality
  
British

Spouse
  
Roy Watkinson (m. 1961)

Succeeded by
  
Political party
  
Preceded by
  
Name
  
Angela Watkinson

Majority
  
16,371 (30.7%)

Role
  
British Politician


Angela Watkinson Dame Angela Watkinson calls for review of funding for

Born
  
18 November 1941 (age 82) Leytonstone, Essex, England, UK (
1941-11-18
)

Education
  
Anglia Ruskin University

Angela Watkinson MP - Health debate 20/12/2011


Dame Angela Eileen Watkinson, DBE (née Ellicott; born 18 November 1941) is a British politician. She was Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornchurch and Upminster until 2017, and was first elected in 2001 to the earlier seat of Upminster, defeating Labour's Keith Darvill who had taken the seat from the Conservatives in 1997. She was re-elected with an increased majorities in 2005 and 2010.

Contents

Angela Watkinson Sorry Boris Dame Angela Watkinson to run again as MP in

On 19 April 2017, Watkinson announced that she would not be standing for re-election in the 2017 general election.

Angela Watkinson httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Angela watkinson mp talks to women2win about older women in parliament


Early life

Born in Leytonstone, Essex, she attended Wanstead County High School (a grammar school, now Wanstead High School) on Redbridge Lane West in Wanstead. In 1989, she gained a Public Administration Higher National Certificate from Anglia Higher Education College. She worked for the Bank of New South Wales (since 1982 the Westpac Banking Corporation) from 1958–64 and became a secretary in 1976 of a Special School in Essex, which helps physically handicapped children with riding lessons. In 1988, she became a clerk to a school governing body, then committee clerk to Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council from 1988–89. From 1989–94, she was a committee manager for Basildon District Council. She was a councillor for Havering London Borough Council from 1994–98, and on Essex County Council from 1997–2001.

Parliamentary career

Angela Watkinson Hornchurch and Upminster MP Angela Watkinson absent from Parliament

Watkinson was a member of the right-wing Conservative Monday Club but resigned her membership in October 2001 when the newly elected Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith suspended his party's links with the Monday club. He declared that the club's views on race and immigration were incompatible with his plans to reform the party, and Watkinson was one of three Conservative MPs forced to leave the group. An opponent of abortion, she introduced a Private Member's Bill on 14 June 2006, which would have forced doctors offering abortion, or contraception advice to under-16s, to inform the child's parents. MPs voted by 159 to 87 to reject the bill.

Angela Watkinson Angela Watkinson MP talks to Women2Win about older women in

At a press conference on 13 March 2007, Watkinson stated that "the whole premise of sex education was wrong". Watkinson is among a dozen or so MPs who hold the most definite record on sexual identity politics, disapproving of every piece of legislation supportive of homosexuality that has passed through the House of Commons. An exception was her vote in support of the second reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill on 5 February 2013.

Angela Watkinson Exclusive Hornchurch and Upminster shortlist Conservative Home

She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for public and political service.

Watkinson has expressed opposition to the introduction of non-branded packaging for cigarettes; in a debate on this in 2014, Labour MP Diana Johnson pointed out that Watkinson had accepted hospitality and two tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show, worth £1,260, from Japan Tobacco, makers of Benson & Hedges cigarettes. She is a supporter of Israel and often spoke about that in the House of Commons.

In spite of her background as a right-wing "lifelong Eurosceptic", she supported the Remain campaign in 2016 and opposed Brexit prior to the 2016 European Union membership referendum.

On 19 April 2017, Watkinson announced that she would not be standing for re-election in the 2017 general election.

Personal life

She lives in Essex and Westminster, and is a member and elder of the United Reformed Church. She is a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. She married Roy Watkinson, now a retired Metropolitan Police officer, in 1961 in Essex; the couple has a son and two daughters.

References

Angela Watkinson Wikipedia