Claire Ward

Claire Margaret Ward (born 9 May 1972) is a British Labour Party politician. She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Watford from 1997 to 2010, and was a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice from 2009 to 2010.

Ward was born in North Shields, Northumberland, the daughter of Frank and Cathy Ward. Both her parents were Labour Party councillors and her father stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for Hertsmere in the 1987 general election. She was brought up in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, where she attended the Loreto College, an all-girls Roman Catholic school in St Albans, and studied at the newly created University of Hertfordshire where she earned an LLB degree in Law in 1993. She then did an MA in Britain and the European Union at Brunel University, before qualifying as a solicitor at the College of Law in London. From 1995–98, she was a trainee solicitor.

Ward joined the Labour Party, the Co-operative Party and the Transport and General Workers' Union at the age of 15, becoming an active member of Young Labour. In 1990 she won the South East TUC Mike Perkins Memorial Award for Young Trade Unionists before being elected as the Youth Representative on Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) the following year.

She was elected as a Councillor on Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council in 1994, where she served as Mayor from 1996–97. She stepped down from the Labour Party NEC in 1995 upon her selection as the party's candidate for Watford.

Parliamentary career

Ward was elected to Parliament in 1997, succeeding the former Conservative Party Deputy Chief Whip Tristan Garel-Jones who retired, and defeating Conservative candidate Robert Gordon by 5,792 votes, thereby becoming MP for Watford. Her election was notable in that she was aged 24, although she was not quite the youngest MP, being 50 days older than Chris Leslie, the new MP for Shipley.

After her election, Ward became a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. From 2000 to 2002, she was the Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Chocolate and Confectionery Industry Group. In the 2001 general election she retained her seat by 5,555 votes and was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Hutton.

The increasing dominance of local politics in Watford Borough council by the Liberal Democrats, including the election of a Liberal Democrat Mayor, led to speculation that Ward would find re-election extremely difficult. Ward even accused staff from the council of harassment during the 2005 general election campaign. However, she managed to hold off a strong Liberal Democrat challenge from Sal Brinton; despite a 12% swing against her, Ward held the seat with a majority of 1,148 votes, approximately 2.3% of the electorate. The Conservative candidate was narrowly forced into third place with 793 fewer votes than Brinton, making Watford a three way marginal seat.

Upon her re-election in May 2005, Ward was appointed an Assistant Government Whip before being promoted to full Whip, as a Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, on 5 May 2006. She was promoted again in October 2008 to Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, the lowest of the senior Whips. At the June 2009 Cabinet reshuffle, she replaced Shahid Malik as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice.

She claimed over £90,000 in second home allowance between 2004 and 2009, despite living less than 30 miles from Westminster. Upon publication of MP's expenses in 2009, Ward defended her choice to fund a second home in Westminster from her parliamentary allowance, citing her need to balance her public duties with her duties as a mother of small children. Ward was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs expense details secret.

She lost her seat at the 2010 general election when she finished third in the election in Watford with 14,750 votes, behind the Conservative Party candidate Richard Harrington (19,291 votes) and the Liberal Democrat Sal Brinton (17,866 votes).

Activity in Parliament

The Labour Party was in Government throughout Ward's time in Parliament. As of the end of 2009, Ward has rebelled against the Government's stated or majority position 19 times out of 2,629 votes she has attended, a rebelling rate of 0.72%. She has on occasion voted against her party line on changes to the schedule of the House of Commons, and the Government's position on reform of the House of Lords. In 2004, she voted with the Conservatives in favour of introducing a ban on the "reasonable chastisement" of children. In 2008, in a free vote, On a free vote, Ward voted against her party's majority position on abortion, where she unsuccessfully voted in several separate bills for a reduction in the time when an abortion can be carried out from 24 weeks.

In her period as a backbench MP, Ward made speeches about age discrimination, secondary school admissions, against electoral reform, the European Union, Eurostar, transport safety, in favour of lowering the voting age, the Millennium Dome, pensions, Football hooliganism, defence procurement, the economy, education, broadcasting regulation, Religious schools, chocolate production, home safety, female prisoners, the National Lottery, licensing laws, tree management by Network Rail, school closures in Leavesden, asylum seekers, Normandy Landings, and fox hunting.

According to the TheyWorkForYou website, Ward asked many Parliamentary questions about the Croxley Rail Link, VAT, the Middle East, Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. Ward voted on key issues (They Work For You):

• Voted for introducing a smoking ban.
• Voted for introducing ID cards.
• Voted for introducing foundation hospitals.
• Voted for introducing student top-up fees.
• Voted for Labour's anti-terrorism laws.
• Voted for the Iraq war.
• Voted against investigating the Iraq war.
• Voted for replacing Trident.
• Voted for the hunting ban.
• Voted for equal gay rights.

Since June 2011 Ward has been executive director of the Independent Pharmacy Federation. In March 2015 Ward became the Chair of Pharmacy Voice, an association of trade bodies representing community pharmacy contractors.