Dame Angela Eileen Watkinson, DBE ( 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 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,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, 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 Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

, now Wanstead High School) on Redbridge Lane West in

Wanstead Wanstead () is an area in East London, England, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It borders South Woodford to the north, Redbridge to the east and Manor Park to the south, with Leytonstone and Walthamstow to the west. It is located 8 m ...

. 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 qualifica ...

from Anglia Higher Education College. She worked for the Bank of New South Wales (since 1982 the Westpac Banking Corporation) 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 from 1988 to 1989. From 1989 to 1994, she was a committee manager for Basildon District Council. She was a councillor for

Havering London Borough Council Havering London Borough Council, also known as Havering Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Havering in Greater London, England. It is a London boroughs#London borough councils, London borough council, one of 32 in London. T ...

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 in Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin, east of the City of London. The town was founded in the 13th century by the Stratford Langthorne Abbey, Abbot of West Ham, ...

North, from

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

–

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

. 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, 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 early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

, 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 Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

that has passed through the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

. 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 valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(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 pointed out that Watkinson had accepted hospitality and two tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show, worth £1,260, from

Japan Tobacco The (JT) is a Japanese diversified tobacco company and parent company to Japan Tobacco International, one of the three largest international Big Tobacco product manufacturers in the world. It was established in 1985 as a that inherited the ri ...

, 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 "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

prior to the 2016 European Union membership referendum. 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 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...

. 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 *

* 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 politicians Women councillors in England