Joyce Quin

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Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
30 May 2006
Life Peerage
Member of Parliament
for Gateshead East and Washington West
Gateshead East (1987–97)
In office
12 June 1987 – 11 April 2005
Preceded byBernard Conlan
Succeeded bySharon Hodgson
Member of the European Parliament
for Tyne and Wear
Tyne South and Wear (1979-1984)
In office
10 June 1979 – 18 June 1989
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byAlan Donnelly
Personal details
Born (1944-11-26) 26 November 1944 (age 79)
Political partyLabour
SpouseFrancis Guy MacMullen
Alma materNewcastle University
London School of Economics

Joyce Gwendolen Quin, Baroness Quin,

PC (born 26 November 1944) is a British Labour Party politician. She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Gateshead East and Washington West and for its predecessor Gateshead East
from 1987 to 2005.

Early life and career

Quin was educated at Whitley Bay Grammar School and

Newcastle University, where she gained first class honours in French and came top in her year. She subsequently gained an M.Sc. in International Relations at the London School of Economics. She worked as a French language lecturer and tutor at the University of Bath and Durham University. Quin is the grand-niece of Labour Party politician Joshua Ritson
(1874–1955).

She served as Member of the European Parliament for Tyne South and Wear and Tyne and Wear successively from 1979 to 1989. During her time as an MEP she served as Labour spokesperson on Fisheries from 1979 to 1984. She was a member of the Agriculture, Women's Rights, Regional and Economic Affairs Committee. In 1979, she tabled the resolution to set up a Register of Members' Interests which was eventually accepted by the European Parliament.

Member of Parliament

Quin entered the House of Commons in the 1987 election as Member of Parliament for Gateshead East. In Opposition (1987-1997) she served on the Labour front bench as a Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs, Trade Policy, Regional Policy and Employment (dealing with the EU Social Chapter). From 1994 to 1997 she served as Shadow Europe Minister and was Deputy to Shadow Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

After boundary changes for the

referendum in November 2004. In Parliament as a backbencher Quin was the first woman to chair the Northern Group of Labour MPs and Chaired the All-Party Group for France (Franco-British Parliamentary Group). She successfully lobbied Chancellor Gordon Brown to bring in the nationwide concessionary bus travel scheme for pensioners [1]

Life peer

In April 2006, it was announced that Quin had been nominated for a

life peerage by the Labour Party.[2] On 30 May, she was created Baroness Quin, of Gateshead in the County of Tyne and Wear.[3] Quin was appointed a shadow Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs minister by Harriet Harman in May 2010, and was retained in that role by Ed Miliband after his election as Leader of the Labour Party
. She stood down from this position in July 2011.

In November 2007, Baroness Quin was appointed Chair of the Franco-British Council (British Section). In 2010 she was awarded "Officier de la Légion d'Honneur" by the French Government.

She was interviewed in 2014 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.[4]

Quin has volunteered as a

Tyne and Wear Museums
.

In 2010 Quin authored a book titled "The British Constitution, Continuity and Change - An Inside View: Authoritative Insight into How Modern Britain Works"

.

References

European Parliament
New constituency Member of the European Parliament
for Tyne South and Wear

19791984
Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of the European Parliament
for Tyne and Wear

19841989
Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Gateshead East

19871997
Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament
for Gateshead East and Washington West

19972005
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
Minister of State for Home Affairs

1997–1998
Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of State for Europe
1998–1999
Succeeded by