The Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston | |
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![]() Official portrait, 2020 | |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health | |
In office 29 July 1999 – 8 June 2001 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | The Baroness Hayman |
Succeeded by | Hazel Blears |
Member of the House of Lords | |
Life peerage 17 September 2020 | |
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston | |
In office 1 May 1997 – 3 May 2017 | |
Preceded by | Jill Knight |
Succeeded by | Preet Gill |
Personal details | |
Born | Gisela Gschaider 26 November 1955 Velden, Bavaria, West Germany |
Citizenship | British |
Political party |
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Spouses |
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Children | 2 |
Alma mater |
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Occupation | First Civil Service Commissioner |
Website | Commission Website |
Gisela Stuart, Baroness Stuart of Edgbaston (née Gschaider; born 26 November 1955) is a British-German politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1997 to 2017. A former member of the Labour Party, she now sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.[2]
Born and raised in West Germany, Stuart moved to the United Kingdom in 1974. Elected for Birmingham Edgbaston at the 1997 general election, she was chair of the Vote Leave Campaign Committee and was one of its most high-profile figures, along with the Conservative MPs Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. The Vote Leave campaign was successful in achieving its goal at the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum of winning a majority of votes for Leave. From 2016 to 2020, she served as chair of Vote Leave's successor organisation, Change Britain.
After she had left Parliament, Stuart was appointed by the Conservative government as chair of Wilton Park, an executive agency of the UK Foreign Office dedicated to conflict resolution in international relations, in October 2018. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Constitution Reform Group (CRG), a cross-party organisation chaired by Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, which seeks a new constitutional settlement in the UK by way of a new Act of Union. The Constitution Reform Group's new Act of Union Bill was introduced as a Private Member's Bill on 9 October 2018.
Baroness Stuart was appointed as the First Civil Service Commissioner in March 2022.[3]