The Baroness Featherstone | |
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![]() Official portrait, 2022 | |
Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change | |
In office 29 July 2015 – 7 February 2019 | |
Leader | Tim Farron Vince Cable |
Preceded by | Ed Davey |
Succeeded by | Wera Hobhouse |
Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs | |
In office 7 January 2015 – 16 July 2015 | |
Leader | Nick Clegg |
Preceded by | Chris Huhne[a] |
Succeeded by | Alistair Carmichael |
Minister of State for Crime Prevention | |
In office 4 November 2014 – 8 May 2015 | |
Prime Minister | David Cameron |
Preceded by | Norman Baker |
Succeeded by | The Lord Bates |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development | |
In office 4 September 2012 – 4 November 2014 | |
Prime Minister | David Cameron |
Preceded by | Stephen O'Brien |
Succeeded by | The Baroness Northover |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities | |
In office 12 May 2010 – 4 September 2012 | |
Prime Minister | David Cameron |
Preceded by | Maria Eagle (Minister of State) |
Succeeded by | Helen Grant[1] |
Liberal Democrat Spokesman for Youth and Equality Issues | |
In office 2 July 2007 – 12 May 2010 | |
Leader | Menzies Campbell Nick Clegg |
Preceded by | Susan Kramer |
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
Assumed office 26 November 2015 Life Peerage | |
Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green | |
In office 5 May 2005 – 30 March 2015 | |
Preceded by | Barbara Roche |
Succeeded by | Catherine West |
Member of the London Assembly as the 4th Additional Member | |
In office 4 May 2000 – 6 June 2005 | |
Preceded by | Constituency created |
Succeeded by | Geoff Pope |
Personal details | |
Born | Lynne Choona Ryness 20 December 1951 Highgate, Middlesex, England |
Political party | Liberal Democrats |
Spouse(s) | Stephen Featherstone 1982–96 (divorced) |
Children | 2 |
Residence(s) | Highgate, N6 |
Alma mater | Oxford Polytechnic |
Profession | Businesswoman and subsequently Politician |
a. ^ Office vacant from 12 May 2010 to 7 January 2015. | |
Lynne Choona Featherstone, Baroness Featherstone, PC (née Ryness; born 20 December 1951)[2] is a British politician, businesswoman and Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.[3]
Prior to entering politics, Featherstone was a successful businesswoman owning and running a London design company. She was also a director of the Ryness chain of lighting and electrical shops.
A Member of the London Assembly (MLA) from 2000 to 2005, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornsey and Wood Green between 2005 and 2015, before being nominated for a peerage in the Dissolution Peerages List 2015.[3] She was created Baroness Featherstone, of Highgate in the London Borough of Haringey on 20 October.[4]
Under the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010 she was appointed as a Home Office Minister with responsibility for criminal information and equalities,[5] before being promoted, in 2012, to Minister with responsibility for International Development.[6] Previously she was Liberal Democrat spokesman for Youth and Equality issues, and chair of the Liberal Democrats technology board.[7] As originator and architect of the same sex marriage law during the coalition, Featherstone launched the consultation by the UK Government on introducing same-sex marriage and was the first politician to take part in the Out4Marriage campaign,[8][9] gaining a special Ben and Jerry's ice cream tub and flavour Lynne Honeycomb[10] and returned to the Home Office as Minister of State in November 2014.[11] Featherstone is a patron of Humanists UK.[12]