Patricia Hope Hewitt (born 22 December 1948) British politician. She is the Labour Member of Parliament for Leicester West and is the Secretary of State for Health.

Early career

Born in Canberra, Australia, the daughter of Sir Lennox Hewitt a leading civil servant in the Australian Prime Minster's Office and future chairman of Qantas. She was educated at the Church of England Girls' Grammar School in Canberra, and the city's Australian National University. She went on to study at both Newnham College, Cambridge and Nuffield College, Oxford where she was awarded two master's degrees.

In 1971 she joined Age Concern as a press and public relations officer before joining the UK's National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty) initially as a women's rights officer in 1973, and for nine years from 1974 as the General Secretary, enduring long-term surveillance by MI5, revealed by Cathy Massiter, a former MI5 officer, in 1985.

Route to parliament

Joining the Labour Party in the 1970s, she was initially a follower of Tony Benn; she publicly condemned those left-wing MPs who had abstained in the deputy leadership election of 1981, helping give Denis Healey a narrow victory. She was selected as the Labour candidate in Leicester East constituency at the 1983 General Election following the defection of the sitting Labour MP Tom Bradley to the Social Democratic Party. Bradley stood for the SDP at the election, but it was the Conservative candidate Peter Bruinvels who beat Hewitt into second place by just 933 votes.

Following her defeat in Leicester, she was appointed as the press secretary to the Leader of the Opposition Neil Kinnock, where she was a key player in the first stages of the modernisation of the Labour Party, and helped set up the Institute for Public Policy Research. After Labour's 1992 General Election defeat she became head of research with Andersen Consulting.

Hewitt was elected to the House of Commons for Leicester West at the 1997 General Election following the retirement of the veteran Labour MP Greville Janner. She was elected with a majority of 12,864 and has remained the MP there since. She made her maiden speech on July 3, 1997.^*

Parliamentary career

In parliament she served for a year as a member of the social security select committee from 1997 before becoming a member of the government of Tony Blair in his first reshuffle in 1998 as the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. She was promoted in 1999 to become a Minister of State at the Department for Trade and Industry.

She joined the Blair Cabinet following the 2001 General Election as the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women and Equality. She became a member of the Privy Council in 2001 and has served as the Secretary of State for Health since the 2005 general election.

Loses discrimination case

In October 2005 Patricia Hewitt was found guilty of unlawful sex discrimination in a case brought on principle by a male candidate after Hewitt overruled her advisers and appointed a substantially less-qualified woman to a post on the South West Regional Development Agency. The government Commissioner for Public Appointments acknowledged that the "appointment was contrary to the code of practice for ministerial appointments" and the legal costs of £17,967.17 were paid by the government.However, the unlawful appointment was not reversed and Hewitt did not respond to requests for an apology by the unsuccessful candidate, who claimed "She should know what the laws are on sexual discrimination are — it was her job."[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4334806.stm

Background

She has been a committed equality activist and feminist since her youth. She has been married to William Birtles, a lawyer, since 1981 and they have a son and a daughter. She was a member of the advisory panel of the New Statesman magazine for ten years from 1980. She is a former school governor at the Kentish Town primary education. She speaks French and is a keen gardener. She complained in 2002 over sexist advertising for the Motor Show in Birmingham.In 2003 she was cleared of vote-rigging during the local council elections.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3035888.stm

NHS never had it so good

In April 2006, Patricia Hewitt claimed that the NHS had had "its best year ever", citing waiting times for hospital treatment. However, this came as thousands of jobs were being cut across the country as a number of NHS trusts attempted to cope with budget deficits. At the Royal College of Nursing 2006 conference, Hewitt was heckled and booed by health workers. Delegates at the conference called for job cuts and bed closures to be halted, predicting that the number of posts lost could reach 13,000, and said a work to rule was possible. ^*

Publications

• Your Rights by Patricia Hewitt, 1973, Age Concern Books, Age Concern England, ISBN 0904502082
• Danger Women at Work: Conference Report Edited by Patricia Hewitt, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0901108308
• Equality for Women: Comments on Labour's Proposals for an Anti-Discrimination Law, Edited by Patricia Hewitt, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0901108332
• Step-by-Step Guide to Rights for Women by Patricia Hewitt, 1975, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0901108499
• Your Rights by Patriica Hewitt, 1976, Age Concern Books, Age Concern England, ISBN 0904502627
• 'Your Rights: For Pensioners'' by Patricia Hewitt, 1976, Age Concern Books, Age Concern England, ISBN 090450266X
• Civil Liberties by Patricia Hewitt, 1977
• The Privacy Report by Patricia Hewitt, 1977
• ''Privacy: The Information Gatherers" by Patricia Hewitt, 1978, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0901108685
• Your Rights at Work by Patricia Hewitt, 1978, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0901108715
• Computers, Records and the Right to Privacy by Patricia Hewitt, 1979, Input Two-Nine, ISBN 0905897277
• Income Tax and Sex Discrimination: Practical Guide by Patricia Hewitt, 1979, Civil Liberties Trust, ISBN 0901108847
• Your Rights at Work by Patricia Hewitt, 1980, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 090110888X
• Prevention of Terrorism Act: The Case for Repeal by Catherine Scorer and Patricia Hewitt, 1981, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0901108944
• The Abuse of Power: Civil Liberties in the United Kingdom by Patricia Hewitt, 1981, Blackwell Publishers, ISBN 0855203803
• A Fair Cop: Reforming the Police Complaints Procedure by Patricia Hewitt, 1982, Civil Liberties Trust, ISBN 0946088012
• Race Relations: A Practical Guide to the Law on Race Discrimination by Paul Gordon, John Wright, Patricia Hewitt, 1982, Civil Liberties Trust, ISBN 0946088020
• Your Rights: For Pensioners by Patricia Hewitt, 1982, Age Concern England, ISBN 0862420148
• Your Rights at Work by Patricia Hewitt, 1983, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0946088063
• Your Rights: For Pensioners by Patricia Hewitt, 1984, Age Concern England, ISBN 0862420296
• The New Prevention of Terrorism Act: The Case for Repeal by Catherine Scorer, Sarah Spencer, Patricia Hewitt, 1985, Civil Liberties Trust, ISBN 0946088136
• Your Rights: For Pensioners by Patricia Hewitt, 1986, Age Concern England, ISBN 0862420474
• A Cleaner, Faster London: Road Pricing, Transport Policy and the Environment by Patricia Hewitt, 1989, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1872452000
• Women's Votes: The Key to Winning Edited by Patricia Hewitt and Deborah Mattinson, 1989, Fabian Society, ISBN 0716313537
• Your Rights: A Guide to Money Benefits for Retired People by Patricia Hewitt, 1989, Age Concern England, ISBN 0862420806
• The Family Way: A New Approach to Policy-Making by Anna Coote, Harriet Harman, Patricia Hewitt, 1990, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1872452159
• Your Second Baby by Patricia Hewitt and Wendy Rose-Neil, 1990, HarperCollins, ISBN 0044406088
• Next Left: An Agenda for the 1990s by Tessa Blackstone, James Cornford, David Miliband and Patricia Hewitt, 1992, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1872452450
• About Time: Revolution in Work and Family Life by Patricia Hewitt, 1993, Rivers Oram Press, ISBN 1854890409
• Social Justice, Children and Families by Patricia Hewitt and Penelope Leach, 1993, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1872452760
• A British Bill of Rights by Anthony Lester, Patricia Hewitt et al, 1996, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1860300448
• ''The Politics of Attachment: Towards a Secure Society" by Sebastian Kraemer, preface by Patricia Hewitt, 1996, Free Association Books Ltd, ISBN 1853433446
• Defence for the 21st Century: Towards a Post Cold-War Force Structure by Malcolm Chalmer, foreword by Patricia Hewitt, 1997, Fabian Society, ISBN 0716330407
• Information Age Government: Delivering the Blair Revolution by Liam Byrne, foreword by Patricia Hewitt, 1997, Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305828
• Pebbles in the Sand by Patricia Hewitt, 1998, Dorrance Publishing Co, ISBN 0805942726
• ''Winning for Women" by Harriet Harman and Deborah Mattinson, foreword by Patricia Hewitt, 2000, Fabian Society, ISBN 0716305968
• Unfinnished Business: The New Agenda for the Workplace by Patricia Hewitt, 2004, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1860302599
• The Future of the NHS (contributed a chapter) edited by Dr Michelle Tempest, xpl Publishing, ISBN 1858113695

External links

• Patricia Hewitt official site
• 10 Downing Street - Patricia Hewitt official biography
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Patricia Hewitt MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Patricia Hewitt MP
• Hewitt guilty of sex bias

Current British MPs | 1948 births | Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge | British MPs | Leicester | British Secretaries of State | Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom | UK Labour Party politicians | Living people | Secretaries of State for Health (UK) | British female MPs