Baroness Whitaker

Janet Alison Whitaker, Baroness Whitaker (born 20 February 1936) is a British politician with the Labour Party.

Born Janet Alison Stewart, she is the daughter of Alan Harrison Stewart and Ella Stewart (née Saunders). She was educated at Nottingham High School for Girls, Girton College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom and at Bryn Mawr College and Harvard University in the United States. In 1964 she married Benjamin Whitaker (1934-2014) a barrister, author and human rights activist, who served a single term as Labour Party MP for Hampstead from 1966-70.

Whitaker began her career in publishing. She was a Commissioning Editor with the English publishing house Andre Deutsch LTD from 1961 until 1968. From 1974-96 she was with the Employment Department Group. She was then employed by the Commonwealth Secretariat as a consultant for the Commission for Racial Equality (1996–98). She was then with Independent Television Commission (ITC) starting in 1999, serving as the Deputy Chair from 2001 to 2003. During that time, she was a consultant to the Committee of Reference for Friends Provident insurance company from 1999-08.

In June 1999, she was included in Tony Blair's new list of working peers in recognition of a career in publishing and the civil service. She was created a Life Peer on 5 August 1999 taking the title 'Baroness Whitaker of Beeston, Nottinghamshire'.

Whitaker joined the House of Lords on 5 August 1999. Since then she has sat on committees including Home Affairs, Human Rights, and Intergovernmental Organisations. Her focus within the UK is East Sussex and Nottingham. She was an International Development Liaison Peer from 1999 to 2007 and served as Vice-Chair of the UK Parliamentary Labour Party International Development Committee. She chaired the Design in Public Procurement Inquiry (2009) and the Design Education Inquiry (2011). Whitaker lists her political interests as architecture and design, international development and race relations.

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