Gwyneth Dunwoody

Labour MP Crewe and Nantwich

Date of birth

12 December 1930

Political profile

Gwyneth Dunwoody became one of the best known MPs in the country in 2001, after the Labour leadership attempted to remove her as Chair of the Transport Select Committee, a position she had held since 1997 and in which she had proved herself to be a persistent thorn in the government's side.

She refused to take her sacking quietly, and toured the media outlets denouncing the decision.

Eventually, Labour MPs staged their biggest ever rebellion to reinstate her to the committee.

She was re-elected as chair, and continues to be a fierce critic of various aspects of transport policy.

The daughter of former Labour Party general secretary Morgan Phillips, she is the party's longest serving female MP, having first served as MP for Exeter 1966-70 and as MP for Crewe and Natwich since 1974.

She was a junior minister under Harold Wilson in the late 1960s and sat on the Labour front bench in the early 1980s, but for most of her career she has remained on the backbenches, although she was a member of Labour's NEC for much of the 1980s.

She is opposed to positive discrimination for women, and is a longstanding critic of Europe.

She is an advocate of an increased role for MPs, and stood unsuccessfully for the Speakership in October 2000.

Contact

Constituency office 01270 589132

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