Elizabeth Peacock

Elizabeth Peacock
Member of Parliament
for Batley and Spen
In office
9 June 1983 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byNew constituency
Succeeded byMike Wood
Parliamentary Private Secretary for the Social Security and Disabled People Unit
under Nicholas Scott
In office
1992
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Personal details
Born (1937-09-04) 4 September 1937 (age 87)
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Brian David
​
(m. 1957)​
Children2 sons[1]

Elizabeth Joan Peacock (née Gates; born 4 September 1937) is a British Conservative politician and former Member of Parliament for the West Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen.

Peacock served as a North Yorkshire County Councillor from 1981 to 1984, and represented Batley and Spen from 1983 to 1997, during which time she was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Nicholas Scott as Minister for Social Security and Disabled People Unit (1992). Peacock was opposed to abortion, and sometimes advocated direct action.[1] In the debate on the Abortion Amendment Law in January 1988, she was a supporter of the Bill, speaking out for lowering the time-frame in which a legal abortion is permitted, originally standing at 28 weeks, in the Abortion (Amendment) Bill.[2] Peacock stood again in the 2001 election, unsuccessfully, and declined to stand in the 2005 election.[3]

She was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.[4]

Peacock continues to be interviewed occasionally on political issues; for example, in April 2019 she appeared on the BBC's regional politics programme, Sunday Politics, supporting Brexit.[5]

In reference to the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election, Peacock said that the respect must be earned in the Red wall.[6]

  1. ^ a b "Vote 2001, Candidate – Elizabeth Peacock". BBC. 8 June 2001. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  2. ^ "Abortion (Amendment) Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 22 January 1988. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  3. ^ "Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics". qub.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  4. ^ "Elizabeth Peacock interviewed by Henry Irving". British Library Sound Archive. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  5. ^ BBC1, Sunday Politics, 7 April 2019.
  6. ^ "Batley and Spen by-election: Why Hartlepool comparisons are wrong". BBC News. 11 June 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2021.