WHO'S WHO
Baroness Williams of Crosby Peer
Address:
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
BIOGRAPHY
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I was born in 1930, and for 35 years was a member of the Labour Party. As Shirley Williams I entered journalism in the 1950s, became General Secretary of the Fabian Society in 1960, and in 1964 was elected MP for Hitchin. I was a member of the Wilson and Callaghan Governments in the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in my period as Secretary of State for Education and Science, and Paymaster General, from 1976 to 1979. I lost my seat in the 1979 election.
By 1980 it was clear that the Labour Party was veering into left-wing extremism, and in 1981 I co-founded the Social Democratic Party as one of the "Gang of Four", becoming the first MP elected for the SDP in 1981 when I became member for Crosby. From 1982 and 1988 I was President of the new party. When, after the 1987 election, it became clear that the two parties should merge I strongly supported the creation of what was to become the Liberal Democrats.
I lost my seat in the 1983 General Election following boundary changes. Outside Parliament I increased my academic commitments, as Public Service Professor of Elective Politics at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 1988-2000. I have held lecturing posts at Cambridge, and in Princeton, Berekely and Chicago in the US, and continue to lecture.
I was married to the late Professor Richard Neustadt, a leading US political scientist. Previously I was married to the philosopher Bernard Williams.
I re-entered Parliament in 1993 as a peer, and chose to use my old constituency of Crosby in my title: Baroness Williams of Crosby. I served as the Party's spokesperson on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the Lords from 1998 to 2001. I was elected Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords in 2001 and served in this position until September 2004.
