Joyce Quin

Labour MP Gateshead East and Washington West

Date of birth

26 November 1944

Education

Whitley Bay Grammar School
Newcastle University (BA French 1967)
LSE (MSc international relations 1969)

Non-political career

Lecturer in French, Bath University 1972-76
Tutor and lecturer in French and politics, Durham University 1976-79
MEP for Tyne and Wear 1979-89

Electoral history

Member for Gateshead East 1987-97, and for Gateshead East and Washington West since 1 May, 1997

Political profile

Joyce Quin is a long serving Labour parliamentarian.

Before her election to the Commons in 1987, she spent eight years as MEP for Tyne and Wear in which time she gained an excellent knowledge of, and commitment to, the European Union.

Her competence and reliability helped her to rise quickly in Labour's ranks, and she spent eight years in opposition before joining the government as a junior Home Office minister in 1997.

She later moved to become minister for Europe, and then went to MAFF as Agriculture Minister.

She was generally reckoned to have been a successful, if low profile, minister.

But she found that she was unable to concentrate on her own priorities and asked to return to the backbenches, a request which was not fulfilled until 2001 because of the foot and mouth outbreak.

She left the government after the last election, and since then has concentrated on her long term campaign for a North East Assembly.

Contact

Commons office: 020 7219 4009

[e-mail]