Glenda Jackson MP
Working hard for Hampstead and Kilburn

Glenda Jackson was born in Birkenhead in 1936, one of four daughters to a charlady and a bricklayer.

She worked in Boots the Chemists for two years after completing school and was also a keen amateur actress which led to her being accepted at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the age of eighteen.

Glenda first appeared on stage in 1957 and had a lengthy and successful career as an actress.  She has won international acclaim for her work in the theatre and on television and film and was awarded two Academy Awards for Women in Love and A Touch of Class. In 1978 Glenda was made a CBE.

Glenda Jackson was elected MP for Hampstead and Highgate at the 1992 general election, the first Labour candidate to win the seat since 1966. She is a full-time MP: in her words “You can’t be a part-time MP anymore than you can be a part-time actress!”

Glenda is an active parliamentarian, and has served on several of the Committees debating major pieces of Government legislation.

In 1994 Glenda was appointed to the position of Labour Transport Team Campaigns Co-ordinator. After Labour’s resounding victory on May 1st 1997, with a majority for Glenda of 13,284 in Hampstead and Highgate, she was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport with specific responsibility for transport in London, airlines and airports, marine and shipping matters, and ports and railway issues. 

Glenda resigned her position in July 1999 and declared her intention to run for selection as the Labour Party candidate for the Mayor of London.  She did not secure the Labour Party nomination in February 2000. 

Glenda was a member of the Greater London Assembly advisory cabinet for homelessness between 2000 and 2004, holding regular surgeries for rough sleepers and working with the Mayor to promote measures to tackle the problems faced by rough sleepers in the capital.

She is now concentrating on her political and constituency interests in Westminster and has been a vocal critic of the Government on a number of issues, perhaps most notably over the war in Iraq.

Glenda was elected to be MP of the new constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn on 8th May 2010 by a narrow margin of 42 votes. She joined the Work and Pensions Select Committee straight after the election and has been very vocal about Housing Benefit cuts, Incapacity Benefit, and how the cuts are unfairly affecting women.

Glenda lives in South London and is divorced with one son, Daniel. Daniel and his wife Michelle have a son called Jack.

You can hear Glenda speaking about her journey from acting into politics in this Audio Clip of BBC's Archive Voices.