Glenys Thornton is Shadow Equalities Minister in the House of Lords, and also a member of the Shadow DCMS team. She became a life Peer in 1998.
Early on, Glenys served on two Lords Select Committees: Environment and Communications. In 2008, she became a Government Whip and spoke from the frontbench on a range of portfolios, including Health (2008-2010), Education (2009 -2010) and Equalities (2009-2010). In 2010 she was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Health, and from late 2010 to 2012 was Shadow Health Minister.
Glenys’ background and passion is in the co-operative, social enterprise and charitable sector. She was National Co-ordinator of the charity Gingerbread (1977-1979), worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau (1979) and was Project Director at the Institute of Community Studies. In the 1980’s she worked for the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society as Political Secretary (1981-1985) and the CWS as the Public and Political Affairs Manager (1985-1992), after which she became a consultant advisor, including to the Co-operative Bank. In 1993, she became General Secretary of the Fabian Society. She founded and chaired the Social Enterprise Coalition (2001- 2008) and ran her own business Pall Mall Consult in 2001.
Glenys was elected to and chaired the Greater London Labour Party (1985-1991) and its Women's Committee (1992-1995), and she was a founder member of Labour Women's Network and Emily's List UK. She has been and remains an activist at local level in north London and Bradford, and a volunteer, patron and trustee of charities and social enterprises.Having grown up in Bradford, Glenys is a passionate advocate for all things Yorkshire
For more information, read Glenys's Parliamentary biography - available here.
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