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

Tessa Jowell (1947-2018) served as Labour Member of Parliament for Dulwich—later Dulwich and West Norwood—from 1992 until 2015. Born to Kenneth and Rosemary Palmer, a chest consultant at Aberdeen Hospital and a radiographer, she was educated at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh. Jowell began her career as a psychiatric social worker, becoming assistant director of the mental health charity Mind between 1974 and 1986, and first entered elected politics in 1970 as a councillor on Camden Borough Council.

 

Jowell was selected to defend the seat of Ilford North in a 1978 by-election following the death of Millie Miller, but was unsuccessful. Her attempts to gain a seat in Parliament over the course of the 1980s were rewarded in 1992, when Jowell unseated Conservative incumbent Gerald Bowden to become Dulwich’s first female MP. In her maiden speech, she drew attention to the problems that her constituents faced: unemployment, poverty and health care, particularly in old age. She reminded the House that “Hon. Members, as they take decisions about the care of vulnerable elderly people, should ask themselves whether what they are deciding is what they would want for themselves or for their families.”

A committed reformer in the Labour party, Jowell was a staunch ally of Tony Blair, both in opposition and in government: she famously once declared that she would “jump under a bus” to save him. She held a series of prominent posts under Blair’s leadership, serving as opposition spokesperson on health and on women’s issues and as an opposition Whip before being invited, following New Labour’s landslide 1997 victory, to join the Government as Minister for public health. Jowell was subsequently given responsibility for education and employment, before finally joining the Cabinet in 2001 as Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

It was in this role, which Jowell would hold until 2007, that she achieved arguably her most significant political achievement: pressing for Britain to make a serious, and ultimately successful, bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Lord Coe remembered her as the “political driving force” behind the bid and “an inseparable part of their ultimate success”, and recalled her “unflinching tenacity” in convincing sceptical colleagues in Government that the British bid could be successful. Speaking in Parliament on the Bill that would facilitate the Games, Jowell emphasised the opportunities that the Olympics presented for Britain: “an opportunity to deliver tangible facilities and transformation to one of the poorer parts of our country…to express pride in our country, to celebrate the tolerance in our diversity, and to be guardians of the dreams of millions and millions of young people.”

As a Minister, Jowell was also involved in co-ordinating support to the families of British victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, establishing Ofcom as the UK’s broadcasting regulator in 2003, liberalising gambling laws and regulations governing pub opening hours—a policy that led to some clashes with her fellow Labour MPs—and launching New Labour’s Sure Start childcare programme, which she later cited as the achievement she was most proud of. After Blair resigned as Prime Minister in 2007, Jowell held a series of governmental posts under his successor Gordon Brown, serving as Minister for the Cabinet Office, Minister for the Olympics and Minister for London.

Following Labour’s defeat in the 2010 general election, she continued to speak for the Opposition as shadow Minister for the Games and London until the Olympics took place in 2012; in the same year, she was appointed DBE for services to politics and charity. In 2015, she launched a bid to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London, coming second to Sadiq Khan. She chose not to stand again in the general election that year, and took a seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Jowell. Addressing the House of Lords for the first time in 2016, she praised the scrutiny role of the institution she had become part of, while reflecting fondly on her former constituency—“its diversity, the endless ingenuity of its people, their optimism and their belief in the possibility of change”—and the “renewed sense of our national identity” that the 2012 London Olympics had engendered across the United Kingdom.

In 2017, Jowell was diagnosed with a brain tumour and began undergoing treatment. In her final speech in the House of Lords, which concluded with a standing ovation from her fellow peers, she highlighted the slow pace of progress on researching the treatment of brain tumours and the importance of early diagnosis and sharing data. The Government subsequently announced that they were doubling research funding and taking action to increase the availability of gold standard tumour diagnosis tests, and that a “Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission” would be established to bring together expertise from across the field. In Jowell’s peroration, she quoted the Irish poet Seamus Heaney’s last words: “Do not be afraid.”

Jowell died on 12 May 2018. Tributes were paid by public figures including then Prime Minister Theresa May, who praised her “lifetime of public service”; then Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn, who recalled her “huge” achievements and her “strength in raising awareness of her illness and fighting for better treatment for others”; and her successor as MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, Helen Hayes, who said that “Life is now better and fairer in our part of south London because Tessa put people first.”

Hansard Writing Team

Hyperlinks:

Millie Miller and Jo Richardson.https://ukvote100.org/2022/08/22/millie-miller-and-jo-richardson/

Baroness Jowell obituary.https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/obituary-baroness-jowell-q23r9c5qb

Tessa Jowell dead: Former Labour cabinet minister who helped to secure 2012 London Olympics dies aged 70.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/tessa-jowell-dead-cancer-brain-tumour-london-olympics-2012-labour-party-age-a8349256.html

London Olympics Bill – House of Commons.https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo050721/debtext/50721-17.htm#50721-17_sonew9

Amendment of the Law – House of Commons Hansard.https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1992/may/14/1-amendment-of-the-law#S6CV0207P0_19920514_HOC_301

Tessa Jowell: ‘I’m most proud of setting up Sure Start’.https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/26/tessa-jowell-proud-setting-up-sure-start

Dame Tessa Jowell dies aged 70. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44098760

Queen’s Speech – House of Lords Hansard.https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2016-05-23/debates/9C8F11BF-DA80-442F-9180-239EDFB05BAB/Queen%E2%80%99SSpeech

NHS: Cancer Treatments – House of Lords Hansard.https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2018-01-25/debates/2665383A-7D07-42B2-8DA0-581D43365F2D/NHSCancerTreatments

Tweet by Theresa May, 13 May 2018. https://twitter.com/theresa_may/status/995568215592980480

Tweet by Jeremy Corbyn, 13 May 2018. https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/995565858696122368