Dame Angela Eileen Watkinson, DBE (''née'' Ellicott; born 18 November 1941) is a British politician. She was Conservative Party

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 Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) for Hornchurch and Upminster until 2017, and was first elected in 2001 to the earlier seat of

Upminster Upminster is a suburban town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Havering. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is one of the district centres identified for development in the London Plan. Historically a rural villag ...

, defeating Labour's

Keith Darvill Keith Ernest Darvill (born 28 May 1948) is a Labour politician in the United Kingdom. He is a councillor in the London Borough of Havering. Darvill started his working life in the Port of London Authority as a dock messenger and was active i ...

who had taken the seat from the Conservatives in 1997. She was re-elected with increased majorities in 2005 and 2010. On 19 April 2017, Watkinson announced that she would not be standing for re-election at the 2017 general election.

Early life

Born in

Leytonstone Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, she attended Wanstead County High School (a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...

, now

Wanstead High School Wanstead High School (WHS), formerly Wanstead County High School, is a co-educational, non-denominational, comprehensive secondary school in Wanstead, London, United Kingdom. Admissions It specialises in the performing arts and has 1532 pupil ...

) on Redbridge Lane West in

Wanstead Wanstead () is a town in East London, England, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It borders South Woodford to the north, Redbridge, London, Redbridge to the east and Forest Gate to the south, with Leytonstone and Walthamstow to the west. It is ...

. In 1989, she gained a Public Administration

Higher National Certificate A Higher National Certificate (HNC), part of the Higher Nationals suite of qualifications, is a higher education/ further education qualification in the United Kingdom. Overview In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the HNC is a BTEC qualificati ...

from Anglia Higher Education College. She worked for the Bank of New South Wales (since 1982 the

Westpac Banking Corporation Westpac Banking Corporation, known simply as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney, New South Wales. Established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, it ...

) from 1958 to 1964 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 Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. It provides a b ...

from 1988 to 1989. From 1989 to 1994, she was a committee manager for

Basildon District Council The Borough of Basildon is a local government district in south Essex in the East of England, centred on the town of Basildon. It was formed as the Basildon District on 1 April 1974 from the former area of Basildon Urban District and the pa ...

. She was a councillor for

Havering London Borough Council Havering London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Havering in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Havering is divided into 18 wards, each elect ...

from 1994 to 1998, and on Essex County Council (for the division of

Billericay Billericay ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Basildon, Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin and constitutes a commuter town east of Central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces. It i ...

North, from

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

–

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

. This was a rare example of a councillor serving simultaneously on first tier authorities in different counties.

Parliamentary career

Watkinson was a member of the right-wing

Conservative Monday Club The Conservative Monday Club (usually known as the Monday Club) is a British political pressure group, aligned with the Conservative Party, though no longer endorsed by it. It also has links to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Union ...

, but resigned her membership in October 2001 when the newly elected Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith suspended his party's links with the group. 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 A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in wh ...

on 14 June 2006, which would have forced doctors offering

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

, or contraception advice to under-16s, to inform the child's parents. MPs voted by 159 to 87 to reject the bill. 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 firm record on sexual identity politics, disapproving of every piece of legislation supportive of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

that has passed through the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

. An exception was her vote in support of the second reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill on 5 February 2013. She was appointed

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(DBE) in the

2013 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2013 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

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 Dame Diana Ruth Johnson (born 25 July 1966) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull North since the 2005 general election. A member of the Labour Party, she was elected as Chair of the ...

pointed out that Watkinson had accepted hospitality and two tickets to the

Chelsea Flower Show The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the ''Great Spring Show'',Phil Clayton, ''The Great Temple Show'' in ''The Garden'' 2008, p.452, The Royal Horticultural Society is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural ...

, worth £1,260, from

Japan Tobacco Hepburn: ''Nippon Senbai Kōsha'' , type = 1985-: Public (''kabushiki gaisha'') 1949-1985: Statutory corporation , traded_as = , industry = FoodTobacco , foundation = 1898 (as Imperial Japanese Tobacco Company)1 June 1949 (as Japan Tobacco ...

, makers of

Benson & Hedges Benson & Hedges is a British brand of cigarettes owned by American conglomerate Altria. Cigarettes under the ''Benson & Hedges'' name are manufactured worldwide by different companies such as Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, Philip Morris USA, British ...

cigarettes.Government to move ahead with standardised cigarette packets

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, 3 April 2014 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 Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAE ...

prior to the

2016 European Union membership referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

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

Personal life

She lives in Essex and Westminster, and is a member and elder of the

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it has approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. Origins and history The United Reformed Church resulte ...

. 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 have a son and two daughters.

References

External links

Angela Watkinson MP
official site
Angela Watkinson MP
biography at the site of the Conservative Party
ePolitix.com – Angela Watkinson

* ttps://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/angela_watkinson/upminster TheyWorkForYou.com – Angela Watkinson MP
The Public Whip – Angela Watkinson MP
voting record
BBC News – Angela Watkinson
profile 30 March 2006 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watkinson, Angela 1941 births Living people Members of Essex County Council Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Politics of the London Borough of Havering Councillors in the London Borough of Havering Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 People from Wanstead People from Leytonstone 21st-century British women politicians 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Women councillors in England