Jacqueline Rita Lawrence (born 9 August 1948,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

) is a politician in the United Kingdom. She was Labour

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the Welsh seat of Preseli Pembrokeshire, from

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic (1997 film), Titanic'', the List of highest-grossing films, highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; ...

until

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered ...

Early life

Lawrence studied at Upperthorpe College in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington unde ...

, and the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study of ...

. She moved to Pembrokeshire in the 1970s and learnt Welsh in order to support her children through Welsh medium education. Lawrence worked for the Trustee Savings Bank and became a member of Dyfed County Council

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority Pembrokeshire Coast National Park ( cy, Parc Cenedlaethol Arfordir Penfro) is a national park along the Pembrokeshire coast in west Wales. It was established as a National Park in 1952. It is one of three national parks in Wales, the others b ...

and the

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a county in the south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The county is home to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The Park ...

Police authority A police authority in the United Kingdom is a public authority that is responsible for overseeing the operations of a police force. The nature and composition of police authorities has varied over time, and there are now just four dedicated "polic ...

. She then became election agent for neighbouring MP

Nick Ainger Nicholas Richard Ainger (born 24 October 1949) is a Welsh politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, previously Pembrokeshire, from 1992 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he served i ...

in the 1992 general election and leader of the Labour Group on

Pembrokeshire County Council Pembrokeshire County Council ( cy, Cyngor Sir Penfro) is the governing body for Pembrokeshire, one of the Principal Areas of Wales. Political control The first election to the council was held in 1995, initially operating as a shadow authorit ...

on its formation as a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

before being adopted as Parliamentary candidate for the Preseli Pembrokeshire constituency.

Parliamentary career

Lawrence was selected to stand for election for Labour through an

all-women shortlist All-women shortlists (AWS) is an affirmative action practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom, allowing only women to stand in particular constituencies for a particular politica ...

, and became MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire in the 1997 election. She was a new Labour loyalist, working on environmental, rural and

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

issues. She was a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee from 1997 to 2001, and a member of the DTI Department of Trade and Industry Select Committee from 2001 until becoming a

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the ...

at the DTI to

Jacqui Smith Jacqueline Jill Smith (born 3 November 1962) is a British broadcaster, political commentator and former Labour Party politician. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Redditch from 1997 to 2010. She served as Home Secretary from 2007 to 2009 ...

who was then Minister of State at the DTI. She was Chair of the Welsh Group of Labour MPs at Westminster from 2003 to 2004 and Chair of the Parliamentary All-Party Group for National Parks until leaving Westminster in 2005. When supporting a government campaign aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy, she revealed that she had given birth to a daughter when she was 17, who was subsequently adopted. She was strongly anti-hunting with dogs and supported legislation to outlaw the practice in the UK. Lawrence stood down from Parliament at the 2005 general election, at which the Preseli Pembrokeshire seat was gained by the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...

Stephen Crabb Stephen Crabb (born 20 January 1973) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Preseli Pembrokeshire since 2005 and Chairman of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee since 2020. A member of the Welsh Conservati ...

After Parliament

In 2005, Lawrence was a founding signatory of the

Henry Jackson Society The Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is a trans-Atlantic foreign policy and national security think tank, based in the United Kingdom. While describing itself as non-partisan, its outlook has been described variously as neoliberal and as neoconser ...

principles, advocating a proactive approach to the spread of

liberal democracy Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into di ...

across the world, including when necessary by military methods.

Personal life

She married David Lawrence in 1968. They have two sons and one daughter.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Jackie 1948 births Living people Labour Party (UK) councillors Welsh Labour Party MPs UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 People from Darlington Alumni of the Open University Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Welsh constituencies Members of Dyfed County Council 20th-century British women politicians 21st-century British women politicians Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Pembrokeshire constituencies Women councillors in Wales