Anita Gale is a Labour Party whip who speaks from the opposition frontbench on Justice, Equalities, and Welsh matters. Anita joined the House of Lords as a life Peer in 1999.
Anita’s background is in the Labour Party and the trade union movement. For the first three years of her working life she was employed as a sewing machinist – starting at the age of 15 in a local clothing factory and working briefly as a shop assistant in between getting married and having her two children. On her return to work she was elected a shop steward for the Tailors and Garment Workers’ Union, which she belonged to until 1970.
She left work to study economics and politics full-time at the Pontypridd Technical College and University College Cardiff (1970-1976).
Anita has a life-long commitment to equalities issues. After graduating in 1976 she took up the post of Women’s Officer of the Wales Labour Party and after eight years was appointed its General Secretary, a post she held until she was made a Peer. From 2004-2009 she was Commissioner for Wales for the Women’s National Commission. In 2005, Anita was presented with the Val Feld Welsh Woman of the Year Award - in recognition of her work for women in Wales.
From 2008-2010 served on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Anita has an active involvement with charitable organisations, including being President for the Royal British Legion Treherbert and District Branch, a Patron of the Kidney Wales Foundation and President of the National Association of Old Age Pensioners of Wales. She is the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Parkinson’s Disease.
Anita enjoys travelling and walking. She is the much-loved matriarch of a large family and enjoys the privileged position of great-grandmother – possibly the busiest job she has outside the House.
For more information, read Anita's Parliamentary biography - available here.
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