Anne Jenkin, Baroness Jenkin of Kennington

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.

Political career

Jenkin stood for election as a Member of Parliament in the 1987 general election. In 2005, she co-founded with Brooks Newmark Women2Win, a campaign to increase the number of female Conservative MPs. She is currently its co-chair with Guy Opperman.

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

She has spoken in favour of equal marriage. Since 2012, she has been a member of the Refreshment Committee which oversees the catering and retail services of the House of Lords.

Controversy

In December 2014, she attracted controversy by suggesting that 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 presenting a report on food poverty which notes that there are now 4 million people in the UK struggling to afford food. She later apologised for the remark, saying she was speaking without a script and had made a mistake: "What I meant was as a society we have lost our ability to cook".

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. Jenkin and her husband have two sons.

Styles