Hazel Blears | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Official portrait, 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 28 June 2007 – 5 June 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Gordon Brown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Ruth Kelly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | John Denham | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister without portfolio | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 5 May 2006 – 28 June 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Ian McCartney | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | The Baroness Warsi[a] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman of the Labour Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 5 May 2006 – 24 June 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Ian McCartney | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Harriet Harman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Member of Parliament forSalford and Eccles Salford (1997–2010) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 1 May 1997 – 30 March 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Stanley Orme | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Rebecca Long-Bailey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Hazel Anne Blears (1956-05-14)14 May 1956 (age 69) Salford,Lancashire, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Michael Halsall | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Trent Polytechnic College of Law | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Official website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hazel Anne Blears (born 14 May 1956) is aBritish formerLabour Party politician, who served as theMember of Parliament (MP) successively for the constituencies ofSalford andSalford and Eccles between1997 and2015.
One of101 female Labour MPs elected at the1997 general election, Blears served in theCabinet asMinister without Portfolio andChair of the Labour Party between 2006 and 2007, andSecretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2007 to 2009, before resigning as a result of theexpenses scandal. Commenting on her resignation,Gordon Brown said that Blears had made an "outstanding contribution" to public life.[1][2]
Blears was re-elected in2010 and remained abackbencher, before standing down at the2015 election.[3]
Hazel Blears was born inSalford,Lancashire on 14 May 1956, the daughter of Arthur Blears, a maintenance fitter.[4][5] A five-year old Blears appeared as an extra in iconic English filmA Taste of Honey, bouncing a ball in the opening credits.[6]
Blears was educated atWorsley Wardley Grammar School inWardley,Worsley and thenEccles College on Chatsworth Road inEllesmere Park,Eccles. She went toTrent Polytechnic inNottingham (now known as Nottingham Trent University), graduating with aBA (Hons) degree in law, and later, theChesterCollege of Law in 1977.[7][8]
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Described by journalistMichael White as a "ferociously effective networker",[5] Blears stood inTatton in 1987 againstNeil Hamilton and in 1992 inBury South where shelost by 788 votes. At the1997 general election she was elected as the Labour MP forSalford, her home seat.
After the election she became theParliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State at theDepartment of HealthAlan Milburn until 1998. She spent ten months in 1999 as PPS to thenChief Secretary to the TreasuryAndrew Smith.
In the run-up to the2001 general election, Blears was a member and later deputy head of the Labour Party campaign team, a group ofbackbenchers tasked with campaigning around the country. This raised her national profile.
At the2010 general election, parliamentary constituencies for Salford and Eccles were restructured, with Blears's constituency being abolished. She defeatedIan Stewart in the selection contest to be the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for the new parliamentary constituency ofSalford and Eccles, and was elected.
During her parliamentary career, she has acquired the nickname "Chipmunk".[9]Fraser Nelson, writing inThe Spectator, has subsequently dubbed her "the Iron Chipmunk", a play on the phrase "Iron Lady", often used to describeMargaret Thatcher.[10]
Following the2001 general election, Blears enteredTony Blair's government as theParliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health, responsible for Public Health. In this job she launched the Government's "5-a-day" campaign to get people to eat more fruit and vegetables.
Blears was promoted in 2003 toMinister of State for Policing, Security and Community Safety.[11] She was elected to theNational Executive Committee of the Labour Party in 2003. After the2005 general election, on 7 June 2005 she became aMember of the Privy Council. In acabinet reshuffle following council elections on 4 May 2006,Tony Blair appointed her Party Chair, replacingIan McCartney.
On 28 June 2007, the new Prime MinisterGordon Brown appointed Blears asSecretary of State for Communities and Local Government, replacingRuth Kelly.[12] In April 2008, it was rumoured that Brown was planning a summer reshuffle in which Blears would be demoted.[13] However, when the reshuffle occurred in the autumn, she retained the position.[14]
In May 2008, Blears mistakenly commented on BBC'sQuestion Time that there were 3 million people unemployed in the United Kingdom when Labour came to power in 1997 (the official figure was 1,602,500).[15]
On 24 February 2007, she announced her candidacy for theelection for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, making her one of six candidates for the job formerly held byJohn Prescott.[16] She came last out of six candidates.Harriet Harman won the election on 24 June 2007.[17]
On 3 June 2009, the day before the 2009European andlocal elections, Blears announced she would resign from the cabinet at the next reshuffle.[2] The media noted how, on the day her resignation was announced, she wore a brooch bearing the message "rocking the boat"[18][19] On 12 June 2009, she expressed her regret at the manner and timing of her resignation in an interview with theManchester Evening News.[20] Her resignation was one of several from the Labour cabinet that summer, with the government's difficulties compounded by poor results in the European elections and poor opinion poll results which were largely blamed on therecession and rising unemployment.[21]
In March 2005, while Home Office minister with responsibility for counter-terrorism, Blears implied that section 44 of theTerrorism Act would disproportionally affect Muslims. In response to this and to her seeming endorsement of it,Ray Powell, President of theNational Black Police Association, described the minister's language as "intemperate and inconsiderate". "I think it is wrong of her to say they should accept it is used disproportionately. That comment would not be helpful and does not instill confidence within the Muslim community".[22]
In August 2005, Blears said that the adoption of hyphenated titles such as 'Asian-British' or 'Indian-British' as a means of 'rebranding' ethnic minorities was "among a range of ideas" brought up in meetings with Muslim and other community groups.[23] This proposal was quickly withdrawn by theHome Office, as the government moved to distance itself from the idea.
In 2006, Blears joined in protests against the closure of hospital departments in her constituency, even though these closures were consistent with the policies of the government of which she was a senior member. Health Emergency's head of campaigns Geoff Martin said, "there are 29 hospitals up and down the country facing the immediate threat of cuts and closure to key services in 2007. Will Hazel Blears be joining demonstrators on the streets in each of those areas or is this just a classic case of 'not in my back yard'"?[24]
In May 2009,TheTelegraph reported that Blears had claimed the maximum allowable expenses, within one pound, for three properties, as well as for stays in hotels. She had also claimed £4,874 on furniture, £899 on a new bed and £913 on a new TV, the second such TV in under a year, and the maximum £400 a month in groceries, and many were said to be outraged that she was not prosecuted. Further, Blears had not paidcapital gains tax on profit from the sale of a London flat. The property was registered as her main residence withHM Revenue and Customs, but Blears had been claiming MPs' second home expenses relating to the flat. She had made a £45,000 profit on its sale without paying capital gains tax.[25]
On 12 May, she volunteered to pay the £13,332 capital gains tax she had avoided on the sale of her second home.[26] It was subsequently claimed that Gordon Brown had ordered her to repay the sum.[27]
In Salford, her constituency, she was met by a number of angry protesters and stayed in a local hotel rather than at home.[28]
Following an investigation by Sir Thomas Legg, Blears was told to repay £225 in expenses in relation to a glass shelving unit for her London flat.[29]
Blears was a member of theIntelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from September 2010 to March 2015.[30] Blears presented the committee's report on privacy and security, carried out followingEdward Snowden's revelations aboutglobal surveillance by the security agencies, to the media.[31][32]
In 2013, Blears launched the Kids without Connections work experience programme. The programme aims to encourage local businesses across Salford and Eccles to offer work experience to young people aged between 16 and 24 years. The placements were not paid but were a way of providing experience to people unemployed or seeking work. As a direct result of the project 16 of the 42 initial young people on the programme found a full-time job or apprenticeship immediately after the scheme had ended.[33]
She stood down at the2015 general election, as she had announced.[3][34][35]
In May 2015, Blears became a director ofThe Co-operative Group and a member of the Risk and Audit Committee and Nominations Committee, for which she was paid £60,000 a year for which she was expected a minimum of one or two days' work per month.[36][37] In 2016 Blears was appointed Chair of theSocial Investment Business.[38] She has also had roles as Chair of the Institute for Dementia at the University of Salford, as an ambassador for theAlzheimer's Society, and as a trustee of theSocial Mobility Foundation.[39] In September 2020, Blears was appointed as "Social Value Specialist" for theNuclear Decommissioning Authority.[40]
She married Michael Halsall in 1989. They have no children.[5]
In 2005 Blears was a member of a parliamentarytap-dancing troupe known as the Division Belles (a play on the term "division bell"). Other members includedCaroline Flint,Beverley Hughes,Laura Moffatt,Meg Munn,Joan Ryan andDari Taylor.[5]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSalford 1997–2010 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forSalford and Eccles 2010–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister without Portfolio 2006–2007 | Vacant Title next held by The Baroness Warsi |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 2007–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Labour Party 2006–2007 | Succeeded by |
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