Jennifer Formby (' Sandle; born 12 April 1960) is a British trade unionist and political figure who served as
General Secretary of the Labour Party from 2018 to 2020. She was previously political director and south-east England regional secretary for
Unite the Union
Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a trade union in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus (trade union), Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union. A general union ...
.
Early life
Born Jennifer Sandle in London, her father served in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
in Korea, Suez and Lebanon. She grew up with an older brother and sister in
Malta
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
,
Bath and
Salisbury
Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...
. She went to
Bath High School for Girls then
St Helen and St Katharine boarding school in
Abingdon, paid for by the Royal Navy from the age of 14. Formby left school with 10
O levels and 3
A levels, but chose not to go to university.
Trade unionism
Formby became a trade unionist when she began her working life in Salisbury at the bookmakers
William Hill in the late 1970s, and became a branch secretary in Unite's predecessor, the
Transport and General Workers' Union.
She later worked for
BOC in
Southampton
Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
, where she became a union
shop steward.
[
Formby became a Transport and General Workers' Union regional officer in 1988.][ She represented a Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust nurse in a ground-breaking employment tribunal case in 2004, where the black nurse suffered racial discrimination by being banned from caring for a white baby.]
Politics
Since late 2011, Formby had been a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party.
In February 2018, Formby announced she was a candidate to become General Secretary of the Labour Party, shortly after the incumbent, Iain McNicol, resigned. Her main rival, Jon Lansman, the chair of Momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (: momenta or momentums; more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. ...
, dropped out of contention on 11 March, making Formby the frontrunner.
On 20 March 2018, she was appointed to the role, effective from April 2018.
Personal life
Formby and Len McCluskey had a child in 1991. She married Freddie Formby in 2000 and the couple had two children together and adopted a third.
''The Guardian''. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Formby, Jennie
1960 births
Living people
People educated at Bath High School for Girls
People educated at the School of St Helen and St Katharine
English trade unionists
Labour Party (UK) officials
People from Bath, Somerset
People from Salisbury
Unite the Union
English women trade unionists