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Barbara Follett (politician)

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British Labour Party politician For the American author, see Barbara Newhall Follett.

Barbara Follett
Official portrait, 2009
Minister for the East of England
In office
28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Preceded byOffice established
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
In office
22 September 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded bySarah McCarthy-Fry
Succeeded byAndrew Stunell
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture and Tourism
In office
4 October 2008 – 22 September 2009
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byMargaret Hodge
Succeeded byMargaret Hodge
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equality
In office
24 November 2007 – 4 October 2008
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byMaria Eagle
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In office
28 June 2007 – 24 November 2007Serving with James Plaskitt
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byJames Plaskitt
Succeeded byJames Plaskitt
Member of Parliament
for Stevenage
In office
1 May 1997 – 12 April 2010
Preceded byTim Wood
Succeeded byStephen McPartland
Personal details
BornDaphne Barbara Hubbard
(1942-12-25) 25 December 1942 (age 81)
Kingston, Colony of Jamaica
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour
Spouses
Richard Turner ​(m. 1963⁠–⁠1970)​
Gerald Stonestreet ​ ​(m. 1970⁠–⁠1974)​
Les Broer ​(m. 1974⁠–⁠1985)​
Ken Follett ​(m. 1985)​
Children3, including Jann Turner
Residence(s)Old Knebworth; Hertfordshire
Alma materSandford School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ellerslie Girls' High School, Sea Point, Cape Town
University of Cape Town
London School of Economics
Open University
Websitehttp://www.barbara-follett.org.uk/

Daphne Barbara Follett (née Hubbard; born 25 December 1942) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stevenage from 1997 to 2010. During this time she held several parliamentary and ministerial positions.

In the decade before entering Parliament she played a major part in transformation of the Labour Party, firstly by making members more aware of their visual impact on voters and secondly by co-founding and running two organisations, Labour Women's Network and Emily's List UK, which spearheaded reforms that helped Labour to return a record 101 women to Parliament in 1997.

Following the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, she repaid more than £42,000 which she had claimed in expenses - which enabled her to top the list of repayments made by MPs. She stood down in 2010 in order to take over running the business of her husband, author Ken Follett.

Background

Follett was born Daphne Barbara Hubbard in Kingston, Jamaica, where her father (originally from Manchester, UK) was an insurance executive. In 1946 the family returned to Britain, first to Jersey then in 1947 to Billericay, Essex. In 1952 the family moved to Ethiopia where her father set up the country's first insurance company in partnership with Emperor Haile Selassie. In 1957 after an unfortunate incident involving her alcoholic father, a toast and a drinks trolley, the family were asked to leave the country and went to Cape Town in South Africa. She began a University degree in Art, but in 1962 had to give it up and started work with Barclays Bank.

She married Richard Turner in 1963 and they moved to Paris where Turner studied for his doctorate and she taught at the Berlitz School of Languages (1963–64). In 1964 her first daughter, Jann, was born. They returned to South Africa in 1966 to run his mother's fruit farm in Stellenbosch, where they had their second daughter, Kim. In 1969, after experiencing first-hand the hardships of life for farm workers in rural South Africa, she started working for Kupugani (Zulu for "uplift yourself"), an organisation which bought and processed agricultural surplus and then sold it cheaply to poor families. It also provided basic health and education.

In 1970, on the breakdown of her marriage Follett moved back to Cape Town and became acting Regional Secretary at the Institute of Race Relations. She worked again for Kupugani from 1971 to 1978, first as Regional Manager for the Cape and South-West Africa (now Namibia) – then as National Health Education Director (1975–78).

After a brief marriage to Gerald Stonestreet, she married architect Les Broer in 1974. Their son Adam was born in 1975. In January 1978 her ex-husband Richard Turner, a prominent anti-apartheid activist, was assassinated.

Three months later, Follett, who was then running the Women's Movement for Peace was told that she too was about to be "banned". She and her children fled to England and lived in Farnham, Surrey. Follett found work as Assistant Course Organiser and lecturer on Africa for the Farnham-based Centre for International Briefing (1980–84) and joined the local Labour Party.

Political career

Follett stood as Labour candidate for Woking in the 1983 general election, but was not elected. In 1985 she married author Ken Follett. From 1984 to 1992 she was a freelance lecturer and consultant, contesting Epsom and Ewell for Labour in 1987, again unsuccessfully. Unhappy with the inequalities that women faced in public life, she joined the Fawcett Society and the National Alliance of Women's Organisations and jointly founded the Labour Women's Network in 1987, on whose Steering Committee she has served ever since.

Inspired by women in the US, Follett imported the idea of EMILYs List, a fundraiser for women Democrat candidates, into Britain for the Labour Party. She became the Director of EMILY's List UK in 1993. The organisation has since backed more than 80 women seeking selection.

During this period she obtained a BSc (Econ) in Economic History from the London School of Economics. She was selected as the candidate in Stevenage (1995) before her postgraduate course could get under way. She concentrated instead on work as visiting fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research (1993–97).

Follett is also an alumna of the Open University and she has since become a patron of Action on Pre-Eclampsia.

In Parliament

The 1997 General Election saw Follett elected as MP for Stevenage. In Parliament she went on the Select Committee on International Development, as well as becoming Chair of the All Party Retail Industry Group; Chair of the Eastern Group of Labour MPS; Chair of the Eastern Region of Labour Movement in Europe; Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Film Industries Group; a member of Labour's backbench Treasury Committee; Joint Secretary of the Population, Development and Reproductive Health Group; and Treasurer of the Sex Equality Group. She is also a member of the Fabian Society.

In May 1999, Follett became a member of the Britain in Europe Council, and served on the Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of Commons. In June 2005, she was elected as Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) Women's Committee. In November 2005, she became Parliamentary private secretary to Tessa Jowell.

In June 2007 she was appointed to become Minister for the East of England, and, in October 2007, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of Equality, supporting the Minister for Women and Equalities, Harriet Harman, with a particular role in drafting the government's equality legislation. She then went on to serve as Minister for Culture, Tourism and the Creative Industries between October 2008 and September 2009, before finally serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government until May 2010.

Following the controversy generated by the public disclosure of her expenses Follett announced her decision to stand down at the 2010 general election on 1 October 2009. She cited a desire to spend more time with her family as her motivation for standing down.

Election results since 1997

Election Constituency Party Votes (%) Position
General 1997 Stevenage Labour 28,440 (55.3%) 1
General 2001 Stevenage Labour 22,025 (51.9%) 1
General 2005 Stevenage Labour 18,003 (42.9%) 1

Parliamentary positions

  • Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party Women's Committee (June 2005)
  • Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Women, Rt Hon Tessa Jowell (June 2005 - May 2006)
  • Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Rt Hon Tessa Jowell (May 2006 - June 2007)
  • Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Women, Rt Hon Ruth Kelly (May 2006)
  • Minister for the East of England (June 2007 - May 2010)
  • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (June 2007 - October 2008)
  • Parliamentary Under-Secretary of Equality (October 2007 - October 2008)
  • Minister for Culture, Tourism and the Creative Industries (October 2008 - September 2009)
  • Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government (September 2009 - May 2010)

Post-parliamentary career

Follett was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of Hertfordshire, in November 2010. She remains committed to women's issues and is a member of the White Ribbon Alliance and the Abortion Rights Campaign.

Follett is married to the international bestselling author Ken Follett and since leaving politics, has been CEO of the Follett Office which is based in Stevenage. She is also Follett's agent.

Follett is a Director of the Jumby Bay Island Company, based in Antigua, and a member of the Labour Women's Network Management Committee.

In 2023, The Guardian reported that Follett had begun donating larger amounts to the Labour Party, having previously been a major donor during the periods the party was led by Tony Blair and Ed Miliband.

Organisations

Follett is a member of, and active in, a number of organisations:

She is also a Patron of Stevenage Haven; Dignity in Dying; Action on Pre-Eclampsia; Herts Aid; Crucial Crew; The Friends of the Forster Country

Brass Eye

In 2001, Follett appeared in the television satire programme Brass Eye, in a special which satirised media hysteria towards the issue of paedophilia. In the programme, she was duped into giving fake warnings about an online game called "Pantu the dog", claiming on camera that a paedophile had converted the dog's eye into a webcam in order to see the child player. Follett went on to demonstrate how the paedophile would wear a t-shirt with a small illustration of a child's body on it in order to disguise themselves as another child, as well as how the paedophiles get children to press their faces against the screen, using special gloves to touch them. Follett complained to the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC) and ITC about being duped into appearing into the programme. The BSC noted that the programme makers had deliberately given warning signals to suggest the material might be dubious and thus rejected Follett's complaints against the show as it successfully revealed the dangers of how public figures were willing to speak "with apparent authority about matters they do not understand".

Expenses controversies

Main article: United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal

In May 2008 following the release of details of MPs expenses it emerged that the taxpayer had paid in excess of £1,600 for window cleaning of Follett's London flat in a single year. The invoices for the work were addressed to her husband.

In May of the following year, The Daily Telegraph alleged that she claimed more than £25,000 for private security patrols at her London home after she was mugged. Follett was also criticised for claiming £120,000 in expenses from the taxpayer over 6 years to pay for a London flat when she already owned one property in the capital. Additionally, commuting to London from her main home in Stevenage takes less than 30 minutes by rail. It was also revealed that Follett had claimed £528.75 to repair and clean a Chinese rug, though only £300 of the claim was actually accepted as the amount was deemed excessive.

In February 2010, following a review of all MP's expenses it was revealed that Follett had claimed more in dubious expenses than any other MP. Additional items she was ordered to repay included £4,454 for having six phone lines at her property and £2,812 for insuring her fine art collection. Follet also claimed twice for boiler insurance and for pest control at a property which was not her second home.

Follett had initially insisted all her claims were justified, but following significant criticism she changed her position and agreed to repay £32,976 for the security patrols and other claims. She later repaid £9,482, for a total of £42,458. Follett apologised, stating "I did try to act as honestly as possible but where I failed, I am sorry".

Personal life

She is married to Ken Follett and since leaving Parliament she has become CEO of his company, which has offices in Stevenage. They own two properties in London, one in Knebworth, a property in Cape Town and a holiday home in Jumby Bay, Antigua. She has two daughters, Jann and Kim, a son, Adam, and two stepchildren, Emanuele and Marie-Claire.

Follett and her husband have been referred to as champagne socialists in the right wing media due to the alleged contrast between their political views and their extravagant lifestyle. She is also well known for training Labour Party members on how to handle the media and present themselves, which has been termed "Folletting". Follett is a frequent donor to the Labour Party.

In an interview, Ken Follett said that his character Pauline Green, president of the United States in his 2021 novel, Never, is based in part on Barbara Follett.

References

  1. ^ "Barbara Follett official biography". 9 October 2009.
  2. "Anti apartheid activist Dr. Richard Turner is assassinated | South African History Online". Sahistory.org.za. 8 January 1978. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  3. "Barbara Follett". BBC. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  4. Kirkup, James (1 October 2009). "Barbara Follett steps down as MP in wake of expenses disclosures". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  5. "Barbara Follett Receives Honorary Degree | University of Hertfordshire". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  6. "Welcome". Barbara Follett. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  7. "Management committee - Labour Women's Network". Archived from the original on 21 March 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  8. Mason, Rowena (9 October 2023). "The Labour donors: from Tory defectors to a supermarket scion". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  9. "Barbara Follett MP | Memberships and organisations". Barbara-follett.org.uk. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  10. "brass eye pedophile special. Internet stalkers". YouTube. 18 August 2008. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  11. Deans, Jason (31 January 2002). "MP loses Brass Eye battle | Media | MediaGuardian". Guardian. London. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  12. "Daily Telegraph article on Follett's expenses". London: Telegraph.co.uk. 24 May 2008. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  13. Max Hastings (26 May 2008). "These expense claims mean we must call time on parliament's petty fiddling". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  14. Beckford, Martin (8 May 2009). "Daily Telegraph article on Follett's expenses". London: Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 May 2009. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  15. ^ UngoedThomas, Jon; Watt, Holly (28 October 2007). "Buy-to-let Barbie cashes in on MPs' housing perk". Times Online. London. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  16. ^ "MP Follett to repay largest sum". BBC News. 4 February 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  17. Kirkup, James (1 October 2009). "Barbara Follett steps down as MP in wake of expenses disclosures". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  18. "THE 374 FIDDLERS - mirror.co.uk". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  19. "Still in the duck house? Life after the expenses row". Independent. London. 11 November 2010. Archived from the original on 12 November 2010. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
  20. Walker, Tim (30 September 2009). "Barbara Follett, the original Blair babe, 'preparing to quit the Commons'". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  21. Jones, George (19 June 2001). "How Blair's New Labour went flat for champagne socialists". Telegraph. London. Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  22. "The red brigade". The Independent. 28 January 1995. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  23. "Search - The Electoral Commission". search.electoralcommission.org.uk. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  24. Anthony, Scaramucci (12 February 2022). "Never with Author Ken Follett ( Mooch FM )". YouTube. Google. Retrieved 16 April 2022.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byTimothy Wood Member of Parliament for Stevenage
1997–2010 		Succeeded byStephen McPartland
Political offices
Preceded byMargaret Hodge Minister for Culture and Tourism
2008–2009 		Succeeded byMargaret Hodge
Preceded bySarah McCarthy-Fry Minister for Local Government
2009–2010 		Succeeded byAndrew Stunell
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