Dari Taylor - Misplaced Pages

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Dari TaylorMP

Member of Parliament for Stockton South
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Tim Devlin
Majority	6,139 (13.7%)

Personal details
Born	(1944-12-13) 13 December 1944 (age 80) Rhondda, Wales
Political party	Labour
Spouse	David Taylor
Relations	Dan Jones (father)
Alma mater	University of Nottingham University of Durham
Website	daritaylormp.co.uk

Dari Jean Taylor (born 13 December 1944) is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Stockton South since the 1997 general election.

Biography

Taylor was born into a staunch Labour Party family in Rhondda, South Wales in December 1944. She originally attended Ynyshir Girls' School before moving to Burnley Municipal College when her father, Daniel Jones, was elected to Parliament as the Labour MP for Burnley in 1959. He remained the MP for Burnley until 1983. She attained a BA from the University of Nottingham and an MA from the University of Durham, then lectured at a number of colleges of Further Education.

She was active in the Trade Union movement from 1990 until her election. She initially worked as a researcher and later becoming the Regional Educational Officer for the GMB Union in the Northern Region in 1993. She was also an elected member of Sunderland Metropolitan Council between 1986 and the time of her election to Parliament in 1997.

Taylor has a particular interest in issues relating to women, health, the economy, industry, defence, international development, disabilities, drugs and crime and all aspects of child welfare, especially adoption.

Parliamentary career

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Taylor was selected to stand for election for Labour through an all-women shortlist . This method of selection was subsequently declared illegal in January 1996 as it breached sex discrimination laws, Despite the ruling she remained in place as the candidate for the following year's election. Taylor was successfully elected and has been Member of Parliament for Stockton South since 1997

She is also Chair of the North East Regional Select Committee.

Committees

Member, House of Commons Defence Select Committee from 1997-2001, Member of the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee, Treasurer of the All-Party Chemicals Group, Vice-Chair of the All-Party Adoption Group, Member of the All-Party All Cancers Group and the All-Party Breast Cancer Group, Member of the All-Party Opera Group and All-Party Child Abduction Group Member of the GMB Group of MPs and Vice-Chair of the Labour Women’s Forum, Secretary of the All-Party Cardiac Risk in the Young Group, Chair of the All-Party Infertility Group.

Parliamentary Private Secretary to Hazel Blears, Home Office minister 2003-05, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lewis Moonie and Lord Bach (Ministry of Defence) 2001-03.

Special political interests: Domestic violence, drugs and crime, child welfare and adoption.

Controversies

Misuses of stationery

In early November 2008 Taylor was found guilty of misusing House of Commons stationary for political purposes, with four complaints about her upheld. Of particular note was the fact that this was the second occasion Taylor had committed such offences, having been already been forced to repay for misused stationary and postage in April 2007. Despite being clearly in the wrong Taylor had made no apology for her actions on either occasion.

A House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges stated:

"We strongly deprecate the continued misuse by Ms Taylor of House stationery for political purposes...we are surprised that an experienced Member has repeated previous breaches of the rules and has failed to act in accordance with advice given by the House authorities. We particularly regret the fact that Ms Taylor has continued to dispute parts of the Commissioner's findings and we are very disappointed that she has offered no apology. We conclude that Ms Taylor should pay the House authorities the sum of £500 and submit an unequivocal written apology."

Taylor suggested that the rules were too "confusing" and that she had "tried her best" to stick to them. She complied with the orders of the committee.

Expenses

Main article: United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal

In May 2009, Taylor attracted some criticism for her expenses claims, in particular for claiming £18,100 over four years for food - the maximum possible claim. She also claimed £54,329 for mortgage interest payments over four years on her two-bedroomed London apartment, £40 per month for a cleaner to perform light housekeeping duties and £310 for tiling a bathroom She was 50th in the expenses scandal chart and was one of the 98 MPs who voted to keep MPs' expenses secret.

Voting record

Taylor strongly supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has voted against civil liberties legislation and Parliamentary reform. She is in favour of nuclear power and the replacement of Trident. She is described as a "Blairite loyalist"

Personal life

She married David Taylor in July 1970 and they have one daughter. She enjoys classical music, walking and travelling.

References

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom Template:Incumbent succession box

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