As a senior member of the Liberal Democrats Shirley Williams' support for Charles Kennedy's candidacy as leader was invaluable. Once tipped to be Britain's first female prime minister, she speaks strongly on social injustice, poverty and women's rights. Indeed, she has first hand experience of being a single mother while a minister in Jim Callaghan's Labour government. She was one of the 'Gang of Four' who broke away to found the SDP in 1981, and subsequently joined the merged Liberal Democrats. Since 1992 she has sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat life peer with the title Baroness Williams of Crosby. But she is happy to lose the job in favour of Lords reform. She is married to the American academic, Richard Neustadt, and they divide their time between America and Britain. As well as Foreign Affairs spokeswoman she is a board member of the International Crisis Group, an "organisation committed to strengthening the capacity of the international community to respond to impending crises."