Elizabeth Symons, Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean (original) (raw)

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British politician, trade unionist, and life peer (born 1951)

The Right HonourableThe Baroness Symonsof Vernham DeanPC
Official portrait, 2018
Minister of State for the Middle East
In office11 June 2001 – 5 May 2005
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	John Battle
Succeeded by	Kim Howells
Minister of State for Trade and Investment
In office11 June 2001 – 13 June 2003
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Richard Caborn
Succeeded by	Mike O'Brien
Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
In office8 June 2001 – 6 June 2005
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Leader	The Lord Williams of MostynThe Baroness Amos
Preceded by	The Lord Williams of Mostyn
Succeeded by	The Lord Rooker
Minister of State for Defence Procurement
In office28 July 1999 – 8 June 2001
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	The Lord Gilbert
Succeeded by	The Lord Bach
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office2 May 1997 – 28 July 1999
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Liam Fox
Succeeded by	Patricia Scotland
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 November 1996Life Peerage
Personal details
Born	Elizabeth Conway Symons (1951-04-14) 14 April 1951 (age 73)
Political party	Labour
Parent	Ernest Symons
Alma mater	Girton College, Cambridge

Elizabeth Conway Symons, Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean PC (born 14 April 1951) is a British politician and trade unionist. A member of the Labour Party, she was Minister of State for the Middle East from 2001 to 2005. She is former General Secretary of the FDA Trade Union and has served as the Chair of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) since 2010.

The daughter of Ernest Symons, Chairman of HM Board of Inland Revenue, Symons was educated at Putney High School for Girls and Girton College, Cambridge. She was an administration trainee at the Department of the Environment from 1974 to 1977. She then worked for the Inland Revenue Staff Federation from 1977 to 1989 and was General Secretary of the Association of First Division Civil Servants from 1989 to 1997. She resigned from this post following her appointment as a working peer.

Lady Symons of Vernham Dean in her role as Minister of Defence Procurement.

Symons was created a Labour life peer as Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, of Vernham Dean in the County of Hampshire, on 7 October 1996.[1] From May 1997 to June 1999, she took her first government post, serving as a junior Foreign Office Minister. From 1999 until 2001, she was Minister of State for Defence Procurement and, from 2001 until 2003, Minister of State for Trade. From 2001 until 2005, she was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs with responsibility for the Middle East, International Security, Consular and Personal Affairs, and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords.

Symons was or remains a member of the British-American Project (BAP). It has a membership of 600 leaders and opinion formers, drawn equally from both countries, according to The Guardian, and holds an annual conference at which everything that is said is officially off-the-record.[2] She also serves on the board of governors of the Ditchley Foundation.

In 2001, she married her long-standing partner, Phil Bassett, a former writer at The Times. They have a son.[3] In October 2002, Bassett was appointed to the Strategic Communications Unit in 10 Downing Street, leaving in September 2003 to become special adviser to Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs.

She is a Senior Network Member at the European Leadership Network (ELN).[4]

Symons was not given a job in the re-shuffle after the general election of 5 May 2005, and became a non-executive director of British Airways.[_citation needed_]

Symons sits on the board of trustees of the John Smith Memorial Trust, an NGO set up in 1995 in memory of the late Labour party leader John Smith.

Conflict of interest allegations

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The Guardian alleged in its issue of 9 January 2005 that Symons may have used her office to give "special treatment" to David Mills, husband of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. Mills was seeking her assistance in sidestepping a U.S. trade embargo against Iran in order to sell $200 million worth of British Aerospace jets to that country.[5]

On 9 February 2006, The Guardian mentioned her as one several former government ministers who had accepted lucrative positions as company directors and consultants. In the case of Symons, the companies involved were British Airways, law firm DLA Piper, and the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O).[6]

In 2009 similar allegations were made when she took a lucrative post with UK investment bank MerchantBridge, which made millions from contracts in post-war Iraq, and also when she became a member of the National Economic Development Board of Libya shortly before the release of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, who was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. Symons resigned from the National Economic Development Board in 2011 in the midst of a popular uprising against the government of Muammar Gaddafi, one day after she had made remarks which appeared to praise Gaddafi's 'sound ideology'. Symons said the remarks had been made facetiously.[_citation needed_]

1. ^ "No. 54550". The London Gazette. 14 October 1996. p. 13637.
2. ^ Feature: Andy Beckett reports on the British-American Project | World news | The Guardian
3. ^ Dod, Charles Roger; Vacher Dod Publishing, Limited; Dod, Robert Phipps (2005). Dod's Parliamentary Companion. Dod's Parliamentary Companion, Limited. ISBN 9780905702513.
4. ^ "Senior Network". www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
5. ^ Minister's 'advice' on Iran jet deal | Politics | The Observer
6. ^ From Brussels to the boardroom: what George Robertson did next | Business | The Guardian