The next in our series on women MPs by the House of Commons Hansard Writing Team.

Dame Cheryl Gillan (1952-2021), who was born in Llandaff, Cardiff, is the only woman to have been Secretary of State for Wales. Before Gillan, Theresa May and Dame Caroline Spelman joined the Cabinet in 2010, only four other elected women had held a Conservative Cabinet post. Gillan was one of 20 women elected in 1992 as Conservatives; the remaining 316 Conservative MPs were all men. According to Harriet Harman, Gillan became “very much a pioneer of women’s presence on the Tory Benches”. Her kindness to new Members was well known, as was her work in promoting the interests of women in the House of Commons.

Gillan was the only child of Mona, a drama teacher and Tory councillor, and Major Adam Gillan, a Scottish Royal Engineers officer.  She spent her early childhood on a family-owned farm in Usk, south Wales, before moving first to Norfolk then to Sheffield. She went to school at Cheltenham Ladies College and studied at the College of Law. Before entering Parliament, she worked in marketing, including as the director of British Film Year and at Ernst and Young. In 1987, she became chairwoman of the centre-right Bow Group think-tank. 

Gillan joined the Young Conservatives at 15. In 1989, she stood in the European Parliament elections for Greater Manchester Central and, in 1992, she was on the shortlist to replace Margaret Thatcher in Finchley; she was selected instead for Chesham and Amersham, and held the seat with a 22,220 majority. She was the youngest of the Conservative women elected at that time.

She made her maiden speech in a debate on the Rio Earth Summit, linking rivers in her constituency with worldwide issues: “many of the environmental problems that we face can be rectified only by global co-operation and action.” She served on the Science and Technology Committee for three years, from 1992 to 1995, and from April 1994 to October 1995 was a member of the Procedure Committee.

In 1995, Gillan became junior Minister for education and employment, where she oversaw the expansion of specialist schools to include sport and the arts. She would stay on the Conservative Front Bench for nearly two decades.

After the 1997 election, she was appointed shadow Minister for Trade and Industry, and then for International Development and Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. In 2001, she became the Opposition’s only female Whip, and in 2003 a shadow Minister at the Home Office. In 2005, she supported David Davis in the Conservative leadership election, which was won by David Cameron; he promoted her to shadow Secretary of State for Wales.

In 2009, Gillan was drawn first in the private Member’s Bills ballot; her Bill, the first disability-specific private Member’s Bill, became the Autism Act 2009. She was chair of the all-party parliamentary group on autism for many years. The National Autistic Society paid tribute to her “welcoming and friendly style” and “passion and drive.”

After the 2010 election, Gillan became Secretary of State for Wales in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition Government. She oversaw the 2011 referendum on extending the Senedd’s law-making powers and established the Silk Commission on further devolution.

After her removal from Government in 2012, Gillan was an influential Back Bencher. She campaigned for changes to the High Speed 2 rail project, which she had spoken out against before the 2010 election, raising the issue in Parliament on numerous occasions. She served on various parliamentary Committees, including the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, and as a member of the Panel of Chairs. She was a UK representative at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, including as Vice President of the Political Affairs and Democracy Committee. 

Gillan was awarded a damehood in 2018; she said that “I owe my career to the people that selected and then elected me…as we mark 100 years since women received the vote, I am proud to be an MP who is a woman and hope that our numbers will increase.”

As a member of the executive committee of the 1922 Committee of Conservative Back Benchers, Gillan briefly took on the role of chair from May to September 2019, and it fell to her to announce the winner of the 2019 Conservative leadership contest.

Gillan held Chesham and Amersham until her death in 2021. She was the longest serving female Conservative MP in Parliament at that time, having represented the seat for 29 years. In parliamentary tributes, the Speaker called Gillan a “doughty defender of her constituents’ interests” who would be “remembered as a friend and mentor to many Members”. Harriet Harman remembered her as “completely warm, non-judgmental, vivacious and outgoing.”

Hansard Writing Team

Links

Biography on Cheryl Gillan’s website: https://web.archive.org/web/20091103090810/http://www.cherylgillan.co.uk/text.aspx?id=50

Parliamentary tributes, April 2021: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-04-13/debates/C7C2524C-ADBC-4BA9-B7B4-CB0593D1494B/Speaker%E2%80%99SStatement

Parliamentary career: https://members.parliament.uk/member/18/career

Maiden speech, 26 June 1992, on the Earth Summit in Rio: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1992-06-25/debates/2d1c4dfa-709d-4697-8c9b-cf91ec477214/EarthSummit#contribution-e1ab5840-9e00-4202-839f-04dbba2a638d

1997 Education announcement: https://www.lgcplus.com/archive/gillan-announces-the-first-sports-and-arts-colleges-18-03-1997/

Autism Act 2009: Autism Act 2009 (legislation.gov.uk)

WalesOnline reviews Gillan’s time as Welsh Secretary: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/delivered-referendum-fragile-reputation—2023564

High Speed 2 contributions in Hansard: https://hansard.parliament.uk/search/MemberContributions?memberId=18&startDate=1992-04-09&endDate=2021-04-04&type=Spoken&searchTerm=%22HS2%22&outputType=List&partial=False&sortOrder=0

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: https://pace.coe.int/en/members/7048/gillan

Bucks Free Press on damehood, 2018: https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/15805213.i-owe-career-people-elected-me-chesham-amersham-mp-cheryl-gillan-credits-damehood-constituents/

Hansard contributions on Autism Bill:  https://hansard.parliament.uk/search/MemberContributions?memberId=18&startDate=2009-01-01&endDate=2009-12-31&type=Spoken&searchTerm=Autism%20Bill&outputType=List&partial=False&sortOrder=0

House of Commons Library briefing: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7172/#:~:text=The%20Autism%20Act%202009%20requires,authorities%20(updated%20in%202015).

2017 Politics Home article by Gillan on Autism Awareness Week: https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/better-autism-awareness-will-allow-autistic-people-to-unlock-their-full-potential

National Autistic Society tribute: https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/news/a-tribute-to-dame-cheryl-gillan-mp

 Parliamentary tributes, April 2021: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-04-13/debates/C7C2524C-ADBC-4BA9-B7B4-CB0593D1494B/Speaker%E2%80%99SStatement