About Jane

Jane was elected as Member of Parliament for Battersea at the General Election of May 2010 and she lives in Balham, in the constituency, with her partner John.

Jane is a member of the Backbench Business Committee, a Parliamentary Committee inaugurated in 2010, which allocates time for debates to backbench Members. She is Co-Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Retail Group and Vice Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Australia and New Zealand Group.

In December 2011, Jane set up the All-Party Parliamentary Group of Female Genital Mutilation (APPG on FGM) to help raise the profile of the issue. The Group is supported by over 50 MPs and Peers from across Parliament, and works closely with leading women’s rights charity Equality Now. Since its inception, Jane has met with Ministers, the Director of Public Prosecutions, midwives, girls from at-risk communities, teachers, campaigners and others to see what more can be done to protect women and girls from this terrible human rights abuse. She speaks about FGM regularly in Parliament, in the media and at conferences.

Born in Bradford in 1964 Jane went to school there and then read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford. She previously worked for the John Lewis Partnership, joining Britain's premier industrial democracy from university and enjoying a varied career with JLP. Until the 2010 General Election she was managing the John Lewis customer magazine, after ten years of managing JLP's customer direct marketing. Before she was elected to Parliament Jane served as a local councillor on two separate occasions in the London Borough of Barnet where she lived before moving south of the river in 2007. Having led various residents' associations herself over the years Jane knows the tireless effort and commitment put in by local voluntary groups. She served for many years as a housing association board member and is a school governor of Honeywell Junior and Infants School, Battersea. She is a member of the Battersea Society and a Friend of Battersea Park and the Battersea Summer Scheme.

Music has always played an important part in Jane's life away from politics and she is a national trustee of the music charity Sing for Pleasure (SfP), and also sings with the Parliament Choir. One of Jane's proudest achievements was co-founding and, for many years, organising the Mill Hill Music Festival and she previously sang with an award-winning chamber choir, The Cavendish Singers.

Jane also enjoys country walking and has walked both the Pennine Way and the Coast to Coast long-distance footpaths. She has been a season ticket holder at Tottenham Hotspur FC for some years and is on the membership waiting list at the MCC.