Anne Moffat
Encyclopedia
Anne Moffat, Mrs. Picking (born 30 March 1958) is a Scottish
Labour Party
politician who was the Member of Parliament
(MP) for East Lothian
from 2001
to 2010. She was deselected by her Constituency Labour Party
and replaced by Fiona O'Donnell
.
, Scotland
, in 1958, she is of the Moffat family of East Lothian
and Fife
, but was known by her married name, Anne Picking. She contested the 2005 election
under her married name, despite having been divorce
d for two years, so as not to confuse the voters. Following the election she returned to her maiden name. She attended Woodmill High School
in Dunfermline before embarking on a career in nursing
.
She joined the Fife Health Board in 1975 as a nursing assistant, becoming a pupil nurse in 1977, before becoming a State Enrolled Nurse in 1978 working at the Lynebank Hospital in Dunfermline. In 1978 she left Fife and joined the Northern Ireland
Eastern Health Service in 1980, leaving in 1983 as a staff nurse.
She moved to England
in 1983 and joined the East Kent Community Health Care Trust as a staff nurse. She became a councillor in 1994 on the Ashford Borough Council where she served until 2000. She has been a member of the National Executive Committee
since 1990. Moffat is also a member of UNISON
and the Trades Union Congress
's General Purposes Committee.
in the 2001 general election
.
She has served on a number of select committees including the Modernisation and Accommodation and Works Committee (2004–2005), the European Scrutiny Committee
(2004–2005) and Trade and Industry Select Committee (2005–2007). She was also Parliamentary Private Secretary
to Alan Johnson
at the Department of Health from 2008-2009.
In November 2008, Moffat was one of 18 MPs who signed a Commons motion backing a Team GB football team at the 2012 Olympics, saying football "should not be any different from other competing sports and our young talent should be allowed to show their skills on the world stage". The football governing bodies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all opposed to a Great Britain team, fearing it would stop them competing as individual nations in future tournaments.
Green Party activist Michael Collie fought to have the details of the claims published under the Freedom of Information Act
. The UK Parliament refused to disclose the information for a total of two years, going as far as the High Court to prevent its disclosure. It was not until November 2007 that Moffat's expenses were finally made public.
Moffat claimed for first-class rail and air fares and trips to Malta and Portugal. Moffat claimed £9,792 in rail fares, with the average claim for a London
to Glasgow
/Edinburgh
journey being £277. She had also claimed £1,817 in rail fares for 42 trips between Heathrow and Central London - an average of £43 when the highest priced ticket costs £18. Moffat claimed £15,712 for air travel between London and Scotland, plus £12,289 in mileage (a total of 24,129 miles). In total for the period 2002-2005 Moffat's travel expenses amounted to £95,539. She cut her claims by 70% in 2006-07, claiming £12,331. In 2007/2008 she had the joint highest expenses claims for Additional Costs Allowances including claims for £400 per month for food even when Parliament is not sitting.
to Adolf Hitler
, saying "proportional representation
gave Germany
Adolf Hitler and in Scotland to a lesser degree we've had the member for Banff and Buchan
" during a debate in the House of Commons on the 2007 Scottish Elections
. Angus Robertson
criticised Moffat's conduct, saying "It was ignorant, it was ill-judged, it was plain wrong, and it was very dangerous." Moffat said "What I was referring to was the voting system, the proportional representation and electoral voting system, not about individuals. I was just giving examples."
However, the East Lothian Labour Party proceeded to vote on 22 January 2010 to deselect Anne Moffat. This was confirmed by a further vote by 130 to 59 on 19 March 2010.
Her critics, who included senior party officials in the constituency, asserted that she had neglected her duties as an MP, as exemplified by having been, at one point, the MP to make the lowest number of speeches in the House of Commons; that she had failed to attend party meetings; and that she had failed to properly represent her constituents.
On 23 March the National Executive Committee
of the Labour Party rejected her appeal. On 25 March it emerged that she had negotiated a retirement deal as an MP on the grounds of poor health.
In May 2008, Moffat was attacked and robbed near her home by a gang of youths. She was knocked unconscious and had her watch and jewellery stolen.
On 25 May 2009, the Independent reported Moffat visited hospital with what was described as 'traces of blood on the pituitary gland'.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politician who was the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for East Lothian
East Lothian (UK Parliament constituency)
East Lothian is a constituency in Scotland which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.-History:...
from 2001
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
to 2010. She was deselected by her Constituency Labour Party
Constituency Labour Party
A Constituency Labour Party is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular UK parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland has, since February 2009, been organised as a province-wide Constituency Labour Party...
and replaced by Fiona O'Donnell
Fiona O'Donnell
Fiona O'Donnell, née Kenny is a Scottish Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for East Lothian since 2010....
.
Early life
Born in DunfermlineDunfermline
Dunfermline is a town and former Royal Burgh in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to a 2008 estimate, Dunfermline has a population of 46,430, making it the second-biggest settlement in Fife. Part of the town's name comes from the Gaelic word...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, in 1958, she is of the Moffat family of East Lothian
East Lothian
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
and Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
, but was known by her married name, Anne Picking. She contested the 2005 election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
under her married name, despite having been divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d for two years, so as not to confuse the voters. Following the election she returned to her maiden name. She attended Woodmill High School
Woodmill High School
Woodmill High School is a local authority run High School in Dunfermline, Scotland. It is one of four High Schools in the town.The school opened in 1958, to serve the expanding estates of Abbeyview, Touch and Garvock. The name Woodmill comes from the former purpose of the land it was built on. It...
in Dunfermline before embarking on a career in nursing
Nursing in the United Kingdom
Nursing in the United Kingdom has a long history, but in its current form probably dates back to the era of Florence Nightingale, who initiated schools of nursing in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries...
.
She joined the Fife Health Board in 1975 as a nursing assistant, becoming a pupil nurse in 1977, before becoming a State Enrolled Nurse in 1978 working at the Lynebank Hospital in Dunfermline. In 1978 she left Fife and joined the Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
Eastern Health Service in 1980, leaving in 1983 as a staff nurse.
She moved to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1983 and joined the East Kent Community Health Care Trust as a staff nurse. She became a councillor in 1994 on the Ashford Borough Council where she served until 2000. She has been a member of the National Executive Committee
National Executive Committee
The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party, Constituency Labour Parties,...
since 1990. Moffat is also a member of UNISON
UNISON
UNISON is the largest trade union in the United Kingdom with over 1.3 million members.The union was formed in 1993 when three public sector trade unions, the National and Local Government Officers Association , the National Union of Public Employees and the Confederation of Health Service...
and the Trades Union Congress
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, representing the majority of trade unions...
's General Purposes Committee.
Parliamentary career
Moffat was elected to the House of Commons for the East Lothian constituencyEast Lothian (UK Parliament constituency)
East Lothian is a constituency in Scotland which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.-History:...
in the 2001 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
.
She has served on a number of select committees including the Modernisation and Accommodation and Works Committee (2004–2005), the European Scrutiny Committee
European Scrutiny Committee
The European Scrutiny Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to assess the legal and political importance of each EU document, and decide which EU documents are debated...
(2004–2005) and Trade and Industry Select Committee (2005–2007). She was also Parliamentary Private Secretary
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary is a role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament by a senior minister in government or shadow minister to act as their contact for the House of Commons; this role is junior to that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, which is a ministerial post, salaried by...
to Alan Johnson
Alan Johnson
Alan Arthur Johnson is a British Labour Party politician who served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010. Before that, he filled a wide variety of cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until 20 January 2011 he was...
at the Department of Health from 2008-2009.
In November 2008, Moffat was one of 18 MPs who signed a Commons motion backing a Team GB football team at the 2012 Olympics, saying football "should not be any different from other competing sports and our young talent should be allowed to show their skills on the world stage". The football governing bodies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all opposed to a Great Britain team, fearing it would stop them competing as individual nations in future tournaments.
Travel expenses
In 2003/04 Moffat billed the taxpayer £39,744 for travel expenses - the highest of any Member of Parliament.Green Party activist Michael Collie fought to have the details of the claims published under the Freedom of Information Act
Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level...
. The UK Parliament refused to disclose the information for a total of two years, going as far as the High Court to prevent its disclosure. It was not until November 2007 that Moffat's expenses were finally made public.
Moffat claimed for first-class rail and air fares and trips to Malta and Portugal. Moffat claimed £9,792 in rail fares, with the average claim for a London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
/Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
journey being £277. She had also claimed £1,817 in rail fares for 42 trips between Heathrow and Central London - an average of £43 when the highest priced ticket costs £18. Moffat claimed £15,712 for air travel between London and Scotland, plus £12,289 in mileage (a total of 24,129 miles). In total for the period 2002-2005 Moffat's travel expenses amounted to £95,539. She cut her claims by 70% in 2006-07, claiming £12,331. In 2007/2008 she had the joint highest expenses claims for Additional Costs Allowances including claims for £400 per month for food even when Parliament is not sitting.
Hitler comparison of First Minister
On 23 May 2007, she compared the newly elected Scottish First Minister Alex SalmondAlex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
to Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, saying "proportional representation
Mixed member proportional representation
Mixed-member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislatures around the world...
gave Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Adolf Hitler and in Scotland to a lesser degree we've had the member for Banff and Buchan
Banff and Buchan (UK Parliament constituency)
Banff and Buchan is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the north-east of Scotland within the Aberdeenshire council area...
" during a debate in the House of Commons on the 2007 Scottish Elections
Scottish Parliament election, 2007
The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999...
. Angus Robertson
Angus Robertson
Angus Struan Carolus Robertson is the Scottish National Party Member of Parliament for Moray and is the SNP's Parliamentary Group Leader and spokesperson for foreign affairs and defence.Robertson was the Election Co-ordinator for the Scottish National party's successful 2007 and 2011 Scottish...
criticised Moffat's conduct, saying "It was ignorant, it was ill-judged, it was plain wrong, and it was very dangerous." Moffat said "What I was referring to was the voting system, the proportional representation and electoral voting system, not about individuals. I was just giving examples."
Deselection by constituency party
In November 2008 the East Lothian constituency party passed a vote of no confidence in Moffat. Her critics claimed dissatisfaction over Moffat's travel expenses and disputes with constituency staff. In response, the national Labour Party suspended the constituency party.However, the East Lothian Labour Party proceeded to vote on 22 January 2010 to deselect Anne Moffat. This was confirmed by a further vote by 130 to 59 on 19 March 2010.
Her critics, who included senior party officials in the constituency, asserted that she had neglected her duties as an MP, as exemplified by having been, at one point, the MP to make the lowest number of speeches in the House of Commons; that she had failed to attend party meetings; and that she had failed to properly represent her constituents.
On 23 March the National Executive Committee
National Executive Committee
The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party, Constituency Labour Parties,...
of the Labour Party rejected her appeal. On 25 March it emerged that she had negotiated a retirement deal as an MP on the grounds of poor health.
Personal life
Moffat is married to her second husband Lawrence McCran. She has one son.In May 2008, Moffat was attacked and robbed near her home by a gang of youths. She was knocked unconscious and had her watch and jewellery stolen.
On 25 May 2009, the Independent reported Moffat visited hospital with what was described as 'traces of blood on the pituitary gland'.