Clare Short
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The Right Honourable Clare Short |
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Short speaking at the EITI Energy Conference, January 2015
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| Secretary of State for International Development | |
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In office 2 May 1997 – 12 May 2003 |
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| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Lynda Chalker (as Minister for Overseas Development) |
| Succeeded by | The Baroness Amos |
| Shadow Minister for Overseas Development | |
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In office 25 July 1996 – 2 May 1997 |
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| Leader | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Joan Lestor |
| Succeeded by | Alastair Goodlad (as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development) |
| Shadow Secretary of State for Transport | |
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In office 19 October 1995 – 25 July 1996 |
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| Leader | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Michael Meacher |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Smith |
| Shadow Minister for Women | |
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In office 21 October 1993 – 19 October 1995 |
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| Leader |
John Smith Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Mo Mowlam |
| Succeeded by | Tessa Jowell |
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Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood |
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In office 10 June 1983 – 12 April 2010 |
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| Preceded by | John Sever |
| Succeeded by | Shabana Mahmood |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
15 February 1946 Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Independent (2006–present) |
| Other political affiliations |
Labour (1983–2006) |
| Spouse(s) | Alex Lyon (1981–1993) |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds |
| Website | Official website |
Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician, and a member of the Labour Party. She was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood from 1983 to 2010; for most of this period she was a Labour Party MP, but she resigned the party whip in 2006 and served the remainder of her term as an Independent. She stood down as a member of parliament at the 2010 general election. Short was Secretary of State for International Development in the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair from 3 May 1997 until her resignation from that post on 12 May 2003. Shortly before her retirement from Parliament in 2010, she was strongly rebuked by her own party when she announced her support for a hung parliament, a situation which subsequently occurred at the 2010 General Election.
Clare Short was born in Birmingham, England in 1946 to Irish Catholic parents from County Armagh, Northern Ireland. She would later be supportive of peaceful Sinn Féin initiatives, although she was never a supporter of IRA violence, some of the worst of which was inflicted in a 1974 bombing of her home city of Birmingham.
Short was briefly married to a fellow student at 18 after she had a child at 17. Their son was given up for adoption, and did not make contact with his birth mother until 1996. She discovered that her son, Toby, was a Conservative supporter who worked as a solicitor in the City of London, and that she was a grandmother of his three children. Her second marriage, to former Labour minister Alex Lyon, ended when he died from Alzheimer's disease in 1993. Short is a cousin of Canadian actor Martin Short; their fathers were brothers.
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