Meral Hussein-Ece, Baroness Hussein-Ece

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Meral Hussein Ece, Baroness Hussein-Ece, OBE (born 10 October 1953) is an English Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. She is the first woman of Turkish Cypriot origin to be a member of either house of Parliament after she was appointed a Liberal Democrat working peer on May 28, 2010.^[1]

Early life

Baroness Hussein-Ece was born in Islington^[2]. Her Turkish -Cypriot parents: Ayshe Cuma Abdullah (mother) and the late Hasan Nihat Hussein (father), came to the UK from Cyprus in the early 1950s, and settled in Islington, North London^{[citation needed]}

Career

Ece originally studied art history and fine art, before going to work in local government and training as a librarian^{[citation needed]}. She subsequently worked for Islington Council's Race Equality Unit, then went to work as a senior manager in the National Health Service, including as chief officer for Haringey Community Health Council^{[citation needed]}.

She was elected as to Hackney Council as a Labour Party councillor for Clissold ward in 1994,^[3] and was Deputy Leader in 1995 and 1996.^[4] She was the first woman from a Turkish/Cypriot background elected to public office in the UK.^[5] In May 1996, a split opened up in the Labour group on Hackney Council with Ece a member of the "Manifesto Group".^[6]

17 councillors in the 'Manifesto Group' including Ece subsequently formed the 'Hackney New Labour' group in September 1996, which despite its name was not affiliated to the Labour Party.^[7] The 'Hackney New Labour' group subsequently broke up and Ece then joined the Liberal Democrats; she was re-elected to Hackney Borough Council in Dalston ward in 1998.^[8]

She was instrumental in setting up the very first Turkish Women's Group, and establishing a domestic violence project for Turkish and Kurdish women^{[citation needed]}.

In the local government elections of 2002, Ece did not stand for re-election in Hackney but was elected as Liberal Democrat councillor for Mildmay ward on Islington Council.^[9] She was the Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care from 2002 to 2006, serving as Chair of the Islington Health Partnership Board and as a member of Islington Primary Care Trust Board. She was also a non-executive director of Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust.^[4] After being re-elected in 2006, Ece was Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee from 2007 to 2009. In November 2009, Ece was appointed as a Commissioner to the Equality and Human Rights Commission^{[citation needed]}. In May 2008 Ece was appointed by the Minister for Equalities, Harriet Harman MP to serve on the Government’s Task Force to increase the numbers of ethnic minority women councillors in the UK^{[citation needed]}.

Ece was awarded the OBE in the Queens New Year Honours 2009, for services to local government.^[10] She was Chair of the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats (2007–10) and was a member of the Liberal Democrats Federal Executive Committee 2005-10, and advised Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on community cohesion and minority ethnic communities^{[citation needed]}.

After an announcement by the UK Cabinet Office on Friday 28 May 2010, Meral Hussein Ece was appointed as a peer to the House of Lords and took her seat as Baroness Hussein-Ece, of Highbury in the London Borough of Islington. She made her maiden speech at the House of Lords on 15 July 2010 in a debate on criminal justice.^[11]

In 2011 she was criticised for referring to 'chavs' in a social networking site update.^{[12] [13]}.

Personal life

She has 3 children.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Meral Ece

• Meral Hussein-Ece's blog
• Houses of Parliament biography
• They Work for You profile - links to all speeches in the Lords