Karen Sinclair (born 20 November 1952) is a
Welsh Labour politician, who represented the constituency of
Clwyd South from when the
National Assembly for Wales
The Senedd ( ; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, Its role is to scrutinise the Welsh Government and legislate on devolve ...
was established in 1999, until she stood down, in 2011. Born and brought up in
Wrexham
Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...
, north Wales, Sinclair has lived in
Llangollen
Llangollen () is a town and community (Wales), community, situated on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Val ...
for over twenty years.
Education and professional career
Sinclair was educated at
Grove Park Girls School, Wrexham. After working in the Youth service for fourteen years, she became a Care Manager with Wrexham Social Services for clients with learning disabilities. She is also a trained
CAB adviser. Sinclair has been a
school governor
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, school governors are the overseers of a school. In state schools, they have three main functions:
*Giving the school a clear vision, ethos and strategic direction
*Holding the headteacher to account for th ...
at
Ysgol Dinas Brân and chair of the Youth Club Committee.
Political career
Local Government
Sinclair was a member of the former Glyndwr District council for seven years, preceding the local Government reorganisation and served on Denbighshire County Council. She chairs the URBAN II West Wrexham regeneration project monitoring committee and is a member of
UNISON
Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...
.
National Assembly for Wales
Sinclair contested the
Clwyd South constituency in the
First National Assembly for Wales elections, and won the seat with a majority of 3,685 against Plaid Cymru's
Hywel Williams. She served as
Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes.
United Kingdom
I ...
for the in the
first Morgan government. In 2003 this position was re-organised, and Sinclair also began to serve as
Minister for Assembly Business. In September 2005, she was reshuffled out of these roles.
She was diagnosed with
bone-marrow cancer in May 2008. In October 2009 she announced that she would step down from her Assembly seat at the next election in 2011.
References
External links
Karen Sinclair AM WebsiteWelsh Labour Party WebsiteWebsite of the Welsh Assembly Government
Website of the National Assembly for Wales
Offices held
1952 births
Living people
Councillors in Wales
Welsh Labour members of the Senedd
Wales AMs 1999–2003
Wales AMs 2003–2007
Wales AMs 2007–2011
Members of the Welsh Government
People educated at Grove Park School, Wrexham
School governors
People from Wrexham
People with multiple myeloma
Women councillors in Wales
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