Lynne Featherstone

http://www.libdems.org.uk/lynne_featherstone

Lynne Featherstone MP
Minister for International Development

Lynne was born and brought up in North London and has lived in the Hornsey & Wood Green constituency for over 30 years. She went to primary school in Highgate, and still lives there today.

She used to run her own London design company and was then the strategic design consultant for the UK’s largest transport consultancy. She has also worked at University College Hospital and was director of an electrical business with ten branches across London.

Lynne first became involved in politics when she helped form a residents’ association, in order to fight council plans to introduce a parking scheme. She was a councillor on Haringey Council (Muswell Hill ward, 1998-2006), where she was also Leader of the Opposition 1998-2002.

Record of delivery
Lynne has a strong record of delivering for local people. As an MP, Lynne has worked with local residents to:

Secure £7.3 million in extra funding for local schools, thanks to the fairer education funding campaign
Save the Whittington Hospital’s A&E, when the Labour Government tried to close it in 2010
Successfully defend local rail services, sorting offices, parcel collection points, and police front counters
Prevent the building of a waste plant on a local green space
Lynne has held regular events in the constituency, including an apprenticeship fair, an independent shops competition and fete, and public meetings on key local issues.

Lynne has worked in Government to give 85,500 people in Haringey a £700 tax cut, to create 530 new apprentices in Hornsey and Wood Green, and to bring youth unemployment in her constituency down by a third since 2010.

Parliamentary Experience
Lynne was elected to Parliament with a 15% swing from Labour in May 2005, and then held the seat with an increased majority in May 2010.

She became a Home Office minister in May 2010, and was appointed Minister in the Department for International Development in September 2012.

Lynne was the architect of the Marriage (same sex couples) Bill – which is now law. Lynne introduced the Bill as Equalities Minister in the Home Office.

As DFID minister, Lynne has launched a campaign to end Female Genital Mutilation within a generation, and a campaign for disability rights and access in Africa.