Janet Anne Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon,PC (born 20 August 1955), is a BritishLabour Co-operative Party politician. A former secretary and adviser toNeil Kinnock, Royall was appointed to the House of Lords in 2004 after having stood unsuccessfully to be MEP forThe Cotswolds, and to be MP forIpswich andOgmore.[2][3][4] She also stood to be a member of Gloucestershire County Council.[5]
From October 2008, she wasLeader of the House of Lords for the last eighteen months ofGordon Brown's premiership.[6]
Royall was Principal ofSomerville College, Oxford from August 2017 until October 2025 and was a candidate in the2024 University of Oxford Chancellor election.[7] She was succeeded byCatherine Royle in October 2025.[8]
Royall grew up inGloucestershire inHucclecote andNewnham on Severn and was educated at theRoyal Forest of Dean Grammar School andWestfield College, London, where she gained a 2.2 (BA) degree in Modern Languages (Spanish and French) in 1977.[9][10]
Royall's first job after graduating was importing flowers fromColombia and she also trained as a secretary.[11][12] Royall was a secretary and adviser toNeil Kinnock,[13][14] theleader of the Labour Party, in the 1980s, and she has remained a close ally of his ever since. She is reputed to have bought the infamous donkey jacket worn by former leaderMichael Foot for his Rembrance Day appearance at the Cenotaph in 1982.[15]
In 1984, Royall stood to be MEP for The Cotswolds, finishing third with 20.7% of the vote. She sought selection as Labour's candidate forIpswich in a2001 by-election, losing toChris Mole;[16] and forOgmore in a2002 by-election, losing toHuw Irranca-Davies.[17] In 2003 she became head of theEuropean Commission office in Wales; her appointment was criticised at the time as "an inappropriate political appointment" byHans-Gert Pöttering.[18] The head of the EU's offices in the UK, Jim Dougal, told BBC Wales that the appointment was above board and that proper procedures were followed at every stage. Royall did not respond to the demands for her resignation and turned down all requests for interviews.[18]
On 25 June 2004, she was created alife peer asBaroness Royall of Blaisdon, ofBlaisdon in theCounty of Gloucestershire.[19][20] She spoke for the Labour party onHealth,International Development andForeign and Commonwealth Affairs.
On 24 January 2008 Royall was appointed governmentchief whip in the House of Lords, on the resignation ofLord Grocott. She was appointed aPrivy Counsellor later in the year. On 3 October 2008, she was appointed to thecabinet byGordon Brown, as Leader of the House of Lords[21] andLord President of the Council. On 5 June 2009, Royall was succeeded as Lord President byPeter Mandelson, theBusiness Secretary, and was appointedChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
She voted for a 100% elected House, on the last occasion that the House of Lords voted onReform of the House of Lords in March 2007.[22] She has called for a national referendum on any reforms of the chamber.
Since 2012, Royall has campaigned for tougher sentencing for people convicted of stalking offences, including the successful tabling of an amendment to increase the maximum sentence for stalking.[23][24] She has advocated for cross-agency information sharing to enable joined-up approaches to combatting stalking.[25]
In September 2012, she spoke out against the proposedbadger cull.[26]
In 2013, Royall stood for election toGloucestershire County Council, finishing fourth with 12% of the vote.[5]
She announced in May 2015 that she would not seek re-election as theLeader of the Opposition in the House of Lords.[27]
In 2016, she chaired an investigation into allegations ofantisemitism inOxford University Labour Club and was subsequently one of two Vice-Chairs of theChakrabarti Inquiry intoantisemitism in the UK Labour Party.[28][29] Royall's report concluded that people thrown out of the Labour Party for anti-semitic views should not be banned for life.[30][31]
Royall voted against theHigher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 citing concerns about the bureaucracy the Bill would entail as well as her opposition to proposed fines.[32][33] Royall has spoken in the Lords about the importance of free speech in universities and her belief that existing legislation is sufficient.[34] In October 2024, the Free Speech Union commented that Royall had an "apparently lackadaisical approach to free speech."[35]
In February 2017,Somerville College, Oxford, announced the selection of Baroness Royall as its next principal.[36] She succeededAlice Prochaska at the end of August 2017.[36][37] In 2019, Royall attracted media attention following her decision to remove octopus from the college menu[38][39][40][41] and supported the introduction of gender-neutral toilets.[42] As Principal, Royall implemented mandatory unconscious bias training in which students, leading to criticism fromToby Young of theFree Speech Union.[43]
She also oversaw an expansion of scholarship provision at Somerville College[44] and initiated outreach to local primary schools.[45] She served as Chair of the Conference of Colleges[46] from 2020 to 2023 and for two years before that was Deputy Chair.[47] In 2021, Royall led a campaign for Somerville to become a College of Sanctuary, offering a pathway to Oxford for students displaced by war or internal unrest.[48] The University of Oxford later adopted this campaign and formed such a Community of Sanctuary.[49] In May 2024, Royall instructedThames Valley Police, who were monitoring pro-Palestine protests, to leave the grounds of Somerville College.[50] In 2024, the UK Campaign Against Anti-Semitism wrote a formal letter of complaint after the Somerville College magazine, with a foreword by Royall, omitted any mention of Jewish victims in three articles on the Holocaust.[51][52] It was announced that she would be standing down from the role of Principal of Somerville College at the end of the 2024/25 academic year at the age of 70.[53]
She was married to Stuart Hercock from 1980 until his death in 2010, and has three children.[54]
{{cite news}}:|last2= has generic name (help)| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Chief Whip in theHouse of Lords 2007–2008 | Succeeded by |
| Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms 2007–2008 | ||
| Preceded by | Lord President of the Council 2008–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Leader of the House of Lords 2008–2010 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 2009–2010 | |
| Preceded by | Shadow Leader of the House of Lords 2010–2015 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords 2008–2015 | Succeeded by |
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| Preceded by | Principal of Somerville College, Oxford 2017–2025 | Succeeded by |
| Cabinet members | Gordon Brown
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