Elaine Burton, Baroness Burton of Coventry
The Baroness Burton of Coventry | |
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Member of Parliament for Coventry South | |
In office 23 February 1950 – 7 October 1959 | |
Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
Preceded by | New constituency |
Succeeded by | Philip Hocking |
Personal details | |
Born | Elaine Frances Burton 2 February 1904 Scarborough, Yorkshire, England |
Died | 6 October 1991 Westminster, England | (aged 87)
Political party | Common Wealth Labour Social Democrats |
Elaine Frances Burton, Baroness Burton of Coventry (2 March 1904 – 6 October 1991) was a politician in the United Kingdom.
Career[]
Burton stood twice to become a Member of Parliament, before being elected on her third candidacy. She lost as a Common Wealth Party candidate in the 1943 Hartlepool by-election, before switching to the Labour Party and losing as a candidate in Hendon South in the 1945 general election. In the 1950 general election, she was elected for the newly created constituency of Coventry South, holding the seat until 1959, when it was gained by the Conservative candidate Philip Hocking.
Burton was elevated to the peerage in April 1962 as Baroness Burton of Coventry, of Coventry in the County of Warwick,[1] where she spoke on topics including women's opportunities in business and public life, and campaigned for the creation of an independent grant-supported body for sport, leading to her appointment to the newly formed Sports Council in 1965. She was also appointed to the Independent Television Authority between 1964 and 1969.
In March 1981 Burton was one of nine Labour peers who left the party to join the newly formed Social Democratic Party.[2] She became their spokesman in the Lords on civil aviation and consumer affairs. Like most other SDP peers, she objected to her party's merger with the Liberal Party in 1988 to become the Liberal Democrats. Thereafter she sat as a crossbencher until her death.
Notes[]
- ^ "No. 42647". The London Gazette. 13 April 1962. p. 3007.
- ^ Russell, William; Parkhouse, Geoffrey (3 March 1971). "Nine Labour peers join breakaway MPs". The Glasgow Herald. p. 1. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
References[]
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages [self-published source][better source needed]
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
- Sutherland, Duncan (January 2006). "Burton, (Frances) Elaine, Baroness Burton of Coventry (1904–1991)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 May 2009. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
External links[]
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Elaine Burton
- 1904 births
- 1991 deaths
- Politicians from Scarborough, North Yorkshire
- Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
- Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- UK MPs 1950–1951
- UK MPs 1951–1955
- UK MPs 1955–1959
- UK MPs who were granted peerages
- Alumni of Leeds Beckett University
- Female life peers
- Labour Party (UK) life peers
- Common Wealth Party politicians
- Members of Parliament for Coventry
- Social Democratic Party (UK) life peers
- 20th-century British women politicians
- People educated at Lawnswood High School
- 20th-century English women
- 20th-century English people
- Labour MP for England stubs
- Life peer stubs