Clare Short MP

MP for Ladywood, Birmingham

After graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in political science, Clare Short joined the Civil Service, serving as a director of inner-city community organisation. In 1983, she moved into politics, and was elected MP for the Ladywood, the Birmingham constituency in which she grew up. She then rose through the ranks of the Labour Front Bench, and in 1997 was appointed as the first cabinet-level Secretary of State for International Development, a post she held until 2003.

After resigning from the cabinet, Short wrote An Honourable Deception? New Labour, Iraq and the Misuse of Power (2004), which documented the build-up to the Iraq War and her relationship with Tony Blair. She resigned the Labour whip in Parliament in October 2006, serving the rest of her term as an independent she stood down at the 2010 general election.