From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sandra Julia Gidley (born 26 March 1957) is a
Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom.
She is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Romsey in Hampshire.
Biography
Born Sandra Julia Rawson in Rosset, Denbighshire in Wales, she was educated widely at
the Eggar's Grammar School (now Eggar's School) on London Road in Alton,
Hampshire; the Afcent International School in Brunssum (now the AFNORTH International School), Netherlands; and the Windsor Girls' School in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She finished her
education at the University of Bath where she was
awarded a BPharm degree in 1978. She became
a MRPharmS
in 1979.
In 1979 she joined Badham Chemists as a pharmacist in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, until she was
appointed as a pharmacy manager with GK Chemists in Gloucester in 1980. She
became a locum pharmacist in 1982 before joining Safeway as a supermarket pharmacy
manager in 1992, and joined Tesco in the same position in 1999 where she
remained until her election to the House of Commons.
Parliamentary career
She joined the Liberal Democrats in 1994, was elected as a
councillor to the Test
Valley Borough Council in 1995, and in 1997 became the youngest
ever female Mayor of Romsey. After Romsey's Conservative MP Michael Colvin
died in a fire at his home in Tangley on February 24, 2000,[1] Gidley
was selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the resulting by-election. She won
the by-election, on May 4, with a majority of 3,311 votes[2] and has
held the seat there since, winning in the 2001 and 2005 general
elections. However in 2005 her majority was reduced to only 125
votes,[3] the
smallest of any Liberal Democrat MP.
She was appointed to the frontbench by Charles Kennedy after the 2001 General
Election as the party's spokeswoman on women's issues and older
people from 2001, with a seat in the Liberal Democrat
Frontbench Team. In January 2006, as Kennedy's faced
allegations of a drink problem, Gidley was one of 11 members of the
Shadow Cabinet to write to Kennedy asking him to resign.[4]
She is currently a Lib Dem shadow Minister for health working
with Norman Lamb and
John Pugh and a member
of the House of Commons Health Select Committee.
Sandra has chaired her party's Gender Balance Task Force,[5] an
initiative to get more women into politics. She chairs the All
Party Parliamentary Group on Eye Health. Sandra is vice-chair of
the All Party Parliamentary groups on Men's Health, AIDS, Cancer
and Domestic Violence as well as co-chair of the All Parliamentary
Party Group on Mental Health.
on 22nd June 2009 Sandra was a public supporter of John Bercow
for Speaker of the House of Commons, Sandra made history by being
the first Liberal Democrat to 'drag' the speaker to his chair.
Traditionally, the winning candidate for Speaker is pulled
‘reluctantly’ to the chair as soon as their victory is announced.
In a clear break with the past, Sandra was chosen by new Speaker
John Bercow over a Labour MP
Personal
life
Sandra and her husband Bill, an electronics engineer, married in
1979 and have lived in Romsey since 1986. They have a daughter,
Gemma, and a son, Nick, who both attended local state schools.
Sandra was for many years a voluntary antenatal teacher with the National Childbirth Trust and
has been involved with many charitable organisations.
She enjoys badminton,
and lists reading, cookery and the theatre amongst her hobbies, and
is a supporter of Macmillan
Cancer Relief.
See also
References
External
links
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