Celia Barlow
Encyclopedia
Celia Anne Barlow is a British
Labour Party
politician who was the Member of Parliament
(MP) for Hove
from 2005
to 2010.
, Wales
, and attended King Edward High School for Girls
in Birmingham
. She completed an MA in Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge
then studying for a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Cardiff University
. She began her career as a reporter
on the Bradford Telegraph and Argus in 1979. She was appointed assistant editor at Asia Television
in Hong Kong
in 1982. She returned to Britain in 1983 to become home news editor at the BBC
. She left the BBC in 1995. She became a freelance video producer
in 1998 before lecturing
in video production at the Chichester College of Art and Design
from 2000.
Constituency Labour Party
in 1993, and became the chair of the Chichester
Constituency Labour Party in 1998. In 2000, she was selected to contest the safe Conservative
seat of Chichester at the 2001 General Election
and finished third, behind the winner Andrew Tyrie
.
In November 2004 Ivor Caplin
, the Labour MP for the very marginal Hove
constituency, announced his retirement at the next election and Celia Barlow was chosen to fight the seat through a controversial All-Women Shortlist. It was widely assumed that she would be defeated by Nicholas Boles
, considered a rising star of the Conservative Party
, but she was elected at the 2005 General Election
with a majority of just 420 votes. She became the first of the new MPs elected in 2005 to make their maiden speech
in the House of Commons.
Barlow was a member of the Procedure Committee
and previously served on the Environmental Audit Select Committee
.
After May 2006 she served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary
to Ian Pearson
, Economic Secretary in HM Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
. She is a member of parliamentary group EURIM.
Barlow was defeated at the 2010 General Election by Conservative candidate Mike Weatherley
.
. She was also forced to repay £635 for a mortgage valuation on her main home; a breach of the expenses rules. She later offered to apologise for her expense claims.
North America foreign correspondent and University of Hull
-educated Sam Jaffa in August 1988 in Bromsgrove
. Her husband stood for the Eastleigh seat in 2001 as a Labour candidate coming third. They have two sons and one daughter together. She lives in Hove
and also has two properties in London and another in Witterings.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
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 Hove
Hove (UK Parliament constituency)
Hove is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
from 2005
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....
to 2010.
Early life
Barlow was born in CardiffCardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and attended King Edward High School for Girls
King Edward VI High School for Girls
King Edward VI High School for Girls is an independent secondary school in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. It is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham and occupies the same site as, and is twinned with, King Edward's School...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. She completed an MA in Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
then studying for a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Cardiff University
Cardiff University
Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...
. She began her career as a reporter
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
on the Bradford Telegraph and Argus in 1979. She was appointed assistant editor at Asia Television
Asia Television Limited
Asia Television Limited is one of the two free-to-air television broadcasters in Hong Kong, the other being rival Television Broadcasts Limited . It launched in 1957 under the name Rediffusion Television as the first television station in Hong Kong...
in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
in 1982. She returned to Britain in 1983 to become home news editor at the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. She left the BBC in 1995. She became a freelance video producer
Video production
Video production is videography, the process of capturing moving images on electronic media even streaming media. The term includes methods of production and post-production...
in 1998 before lecturing
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
in video production at the Chichester College of Art and Design
Chichester College
Chichester College is a college of further education in Chichester, West Sussex. It has a second, campus at Brinsbury, near Pulborough and small centres in Bognor Regis, Littlehampton and Worthing...
from 2000.
Parliamentary career
She was elected secretary of the ChelseaChelsea (UK Parliament constituency)
Chelsea was a borough constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The constituency was created by the Reform Act 1867 for the 1868 general election, when it returned two Members of Parliament , elected by the bloc vote system of election.Under the...
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...
in 1993, and became the chair of the Chichester
Chichester (UK Parliament constituency)
Chichester is a county constituency in West Sussex, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
Constituency Labour Party in 1998. In 2000, she was selected to contest the safe Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
seat of Chichester at 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...
and finished third, behind the winner Andrew Tyrie
Andrew Tyrie
Andrew Guy Tyrie is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He is the Member of Parliament for Chichester, and was first elected in the 1997 general election...
.
In November 2004 Ivor Caplin
Ivor Caplin
Ivor Keith Caplin is a British Labour Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Hove from 1997 until 2005.Caplin was born in Brighton and educated at King Edward's School, Witley and Brighton College of Technology...
, the Labour MP for the very marginal Hove
Hove (UK Parliament constituency)
Hove is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
constituency, announced his retirement at the next election and Celia Barlow was chosen to fight the seat through a controversial All-Women Shortlist. It was widely assumed that she would be defeated by Nicholas Boles
Nicholas Boles
Nicholas Edward Coleridge "Nick" Boles is a British Conservative Party politician who is the Member of Parliament for the Grantham and Stamford constituency in Lincolnshire...
, considered a rising star of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, but she was elected at the 2005 General 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....
with a majority of just 420 votes. She became the first of the new MPs elected in 2005 to make their maiden speech
Maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...
in the House of Commons.
Barlow was a member of the Procedure Committee
Procedure Committee
The Procedure Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to consider the practice and procedure of the House in the conduct of public business.-Membership:...
and previously served on the Environmental Audit Select Committee
Environmental Audit Select Committee
The Environmental Audit Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine how government department's policies and programmes will affect both the environment and sustainable development.-Membership:As of...
.
After May 2006 she served as the 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 Ian Pearson
Ian Pearson
Ian Phares Pearson is a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1994 until 2010, representing Dudley West from 1994 until 1997, and then Dudley South from 1997 until his retirement from the House of Commons at the 2010 general election...
, Economic Secretary in HM Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform was a United Kingdom government department. The department was created on 28 June 2007 on the disbanding of the Department of Trade and Industry , and was itself disbanded on 6 June 2009 on the creation of the Department for Business,...
. She is a member of parliamentary group EURIM.
Barlow was defeated at the 2010 General Election by Conservative candidate Mike Weatherley
Mike Weatherley
Michael 'Mike' Richard Weatherley is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Hove in East Sussex, since winning the seat in the 2010 general election.-Before politics:...
.
2009 Parliamentary Expenses Scandal
She was one of many UK MPs to be implicated in the 2009 Expenses Scandal, claiming more than £28,000 in expenses on her second home, then 'flipping' it and using it as her main residence. The expense claims included the cost of a whirlpool bath and a high lustre silver shower screen Barlow later made political capital out of the fact she didn't claim for a second home in LondonLondon
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...
. She was also forced to repay £635 for a mortgage valuation on her main home; a breach of the expenses rules. She later offered to apologise for her expense claims.
Personal life
Barlow married the former BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
North America foreign correspondent and University of Hull
University of Hull
The University of Hull, known informally as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire...
-educated Sam Jaffa in August 1988 in Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England. The town is about north east of Worcester and south west of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 with a small ethnic minority and is in Bromsgrove District.- History :Bromsgrove is first documented in the early 9th century...
. Her husband stood for the Eastleigh seat in 2001 as a Labour candidate coming third. They have two sons and one daughter together. She lives in Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
and also has two properties in London and another in Witterings.