Lucy Allan (politician)

For other people named Lucy Allan, see Lucy Allan (disambiguation).
Lucy Allan
MP
Member of Parliament
for Telford
Assumed office
7 May 2015
Preceded by David Wright
Majority 730 (1.8%)
Personal details
Born Lucy Elizabeth Allan
(1964-10-02) 2 October 1964
Worcestershire, United
Kingdom
Political party Conservative
Children 1
Alma mater Durham University
Kingston University
Website Official website

Lucy Elizabeth Allan (born 2 October 1964) is a Conservative Party British politician, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Telford, and a family rights campaigner. She was a Councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth from 2006-12. She was elected MP at the 2015 General Election.

Early life and education

Lucy Allan was born on 2 October 1964,[1] the daughter of a farmer and a teacher, growing up near Totnes, Devon.[2] She is related to the Scottish radical socialist suffragette Janie Allan, whose family owned the Allan Line shipping company.[3]

Allan was educated at Durham University and Kingston Law School. She has a degree in anthropology and a masters degree in employment law.[4][5]

Professional career

Allan joined Price Waterhouse as a trainee in 1987,[4][6] where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant and specialised in business turnaround, and in 1994 she further qualified as a Chartered Secretary in the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.[4]

In 1994 she moved into Investment Management, reaching director level, working for UBS Warburg, Gartmore Investment, De La Rue, Mercury Asset Management and First State Investments.[4] While Head of Investment Trusts at First State Investments, which ran the Scottish American Investment Company (SAINTS) and Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust,[7] she was suspended in September 2003 over plagiarism allegations in statements issued by SAINTS.[8][9] In January 2004 she was made redundant, after First State Investments ceased to manage SAINTS.[8]

In 2004, Allan started her masters degree in employment law and set up her employment law consultancy,[4][5][10] specialising in discrimination and maternity issues.[8] In 2009 Allan became a non-executive director of Wandsworth NHS primary care trust.[11] She has served as an employment tribunal panellist.[12]

Political career

Allan was elected as a local councillor to Wandsworth London Borough Council in 2006 and served until 2012.[13][14][15]

In March 2013, she was selected as the Conservative Party parliamentary candidate to contest the marginal constituency of Telford in the 2015 General Election.[14][16] She advocated a direct rail link to London from the town[17] and aimed to tackle the high rate of youth unemployment in Telford.[18]

Family First Campaign

After Allan made a visit to her GP seeking help with symptoms of depression following a family bereavement in 2010,[19] Wandsworth Council launched a child protection investigation, claiming Allan's 10-year-old son was at risk of significant harm. In the wake of the controversy which followed, Allan stood down from the Council, and from her directorship with the NHS. In 2011, following legal action by Allan, social services decided to take no further action.[20][21]

Based on her family's experience,[20] she founded Family First Group,[22] a lobby group which campaigns to reduce the number of children in state care, for improvements to the UK child protection system and support for families affected by it.[23]

In 2012 Allan fronted a media campaign on child protection injustice, which included appearances on ITV's This Morning,[24] the Mail on Sunday[25] and The Times.[26] She used the media coverage to build a political profile for the Family First Campaign, working with Ministers, children's charities, and families to identify and remedy shortcomings in the child protection system.[27] She participated in an ITV Exposure documentary on this subject on 15 July 2014, Don't Take My Child.[21]

Facebook controversy

In December 2015, Allan posted on Facebook an email she said she received from a constituent; the email was edited and ended with the words "unless you die". Allan later acknowledged that she had added those words to the email (saying she had taken them from a different email) -- leading critics to accuse her of faking a death threat.[28][29][30] Allan deactivated her Facebook and Twitter accounts following the incident.[31] Allan later apologised for creating a "misleading impression", and said the controversy was not about her use of social media, but due to "activists unhappy they didn’t get the MP they wanted".[32]

Allegations of bullying staff

In December 2015 Allan was accused of bullying members of staff,[33] and leaving a series of voicemail messages to a sick employee allegedly including a threat of dismissal.[34][35] On 21 December 2015 a statement about the allegations was published on Allan's website but deleted later in the day. The statement apologised for Allan's voicemail messages, which were publicly released, but stated the bullying allegations were unfounded and was critical of a former employee; the Evening Standard characterised the statement as "a long rebuttal".[36][37] Later in January 2016 Allan acknowledged sending the voicemails was "stupid" and she regretted shouting at the employee, but denied her actions amounted to bullying.[38]

NHS junior doctors strike

In April 2016, Allen used Facebook to attack junior doctors saying: "Hard-working people in Telford don't get why privileged trainee doctors, on course to earn £100,000 plus, will hold NHS to ransom and deprive ordinary people of emergency care. I don't get it either. Whilst I am grateful for the work junior doctors carry out day in day out, I cannot support a strike that irresponsibly withdraws A&E treatment. The British Medical Association’s (BMA) action is that of a trade union seeking to politicise a pay dispute for its own ends. The issue of pay has been hijacked by the BMA and it is the British public who are being affected.” Her comments were criticised by junior doctors, with one saying that many of her fellow graduates were still junior doctors who can work “horrific shift patterns” and move hospital every 12 months.[39]

Advancing libertarian agenda

In January 2016 Allan stated that on national issues her approach in general is to advance within parliament the "libertarian agenda", to prevent the increasing influence of the state. For example, she was against a sugar tax that was under consideration by her party.[40] Allan will vote to leave the EU in the June 2016 referendum.[41]

Community and voluntary work

Between 2006 and 2012 she was a governor of Riversdale Primary School in Southfields, London.[42] Between 2013 and 2015 she was a governor of Holmer Lake Primary School in Telford. She served on adoption and fostering panels between 2006-12. In 2007, she served on a Pupil Referral Unit management board. As a councillor, Allan became chairman of a Safer Neighbourhoods Panel with the local police, helped spearhead a graffiti watch scheme, and worked with residents to clean up litter and curb anti-social behaviour. She become a supporter of the Telford Food Bank and has also organised events aimed at encouraging women to start careers in business.[43]

Private life

Allan is married to a stockbroker and has a son.[2][12][25] They live in Southfields, Wandsworth.[19] Allan also has a constituency house in Lawley Bank, Telford.[44]

References

  1. ↑ Lucy Allan (27 November 2007). "LUCY ALLAN - Curriculum Vitae". Sites.google.com. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  2. 1 2 "About Lucy". Lucy Allan. 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  3. ↑ Thom Kennedy (6 April 2015). "Telford: Battle on for key seat". Shropshire Star. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "CV". Lucy Allan. 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Constituency profile: Telford - A genuine three-horse race, say bookies". Shropshire Star. 30 March 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "Conservativehome". Conservativehome.blogs.com. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "First State steps up closed-end presence". Investment Week. 29 July 2002. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 "Change of direction for executive at centre of plagiarism row". The Herald (Scotland). 23 March 2004. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Nick Gilbert (13 October 2003). "Pressure grows on Ivory over plagiarism gaffe". Financial News. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  10. ↑ "Companies House - WORKPLACE LAW LIMITED". Companies House. Company No. 04948719. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  11. ↑ "Wandsworth Council press release". Wandsworth Council Government. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  12. 1 2 "Lucy Allan". Wandsworth Conservatives. 19 April 2010. Archived from the original on 21 April 2010.
  13. ↑ "Borough Council Elections May 2010". Wandsworth Council Government. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  14. 1 2 "Lucy Allan selected for Telford". Conservative Party. 27 March 2013. Archived from the original on 2 April 2013.
  15. ↑ Lucy Allan (27 November 2006). "Councillor ALLAN". Sites.google.com. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  16. ↑ "Would-be MP is campaigning to make hospital parking free". Shropshirestar.com. 25 January 2014. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
  17. ↑ "writes to Transport Secretary about direct rail link". Lucyallan.com. 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
  18. ↑ "Campaigns". Lucyallan.com. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  19. 1 2 Rebecca Taylor (18 December 2015). "Former Wandsworth councillor Lucy Allan MP at centre of phone message bullying scandal launched legal action against Tory Council to court over fitness to parent investigation". Wandsworth Guardian. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  20. 1 2 "Mother branded danger to her son by a psychiatrist they'd never met". Evening Standard (London). 11 April 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  21. 1 2 "Exposure: Don't Take My Child". ITV. 30 June 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  22. ↑ "ABOUT". Family First Group. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  23. ↑ "Former councillor launches child protection petition". Wandsworthguardian.co.uk. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  24. ↑ Alexandra Rucki (2 May 2012). "Former councillor launches UK child protection petition". Wandsworth Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  25. 1 2 Sue Reid (28 March 2012). "The 'experts' who break up families: The terrifying story of the prospective MP branded an unfit mother by experts who'd never met her - a nightmare shared by many other families". Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  26. ↑ "A depressing tale of a mother seeking help". The Times. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  27. ↑ "Improving Child Protection". Facebook.com. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  28. ↑ Jon Stone, "Tory MP Lucy Allan pulls out of BBC interview after being told she can’t veto questions", The Independent, 22 January 2016
  29. ↑ "Telford MP Lucy Allan defends adding death threat". BBC. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  30. ↑ Matt Dathan (9 December 2015). "Tory MP defends faking death threat over Syria air strikes vote". The Independent. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  31. ↑ Steerpike (8 December 2015). "Fake death threat Tory MP wipes herself from the web". The Spectator. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  32. ↑ "Telford MP Lucy Allan tells of 'weirdest week' as protest is launched". Shropshire Star. 14 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  33. ↑ Hughes, Laura (17 December 2015). "Conservative MP Lucy Allan facing allegations of bullying members of staff". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  34. ↑ "Conservative MP Lucy Allan 'threatened to sack sick employee'". BBC. 17 December 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  35. ↑ Rowena Mason (18 December 2015). "Tory MP Lucy Allan should resign over alleged bullying, say two former aides". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  36. ↑ Joseph Watts (21 December 2015). "'Bully' storm MP Lucy Allan refutes staffer's claims in online post... which is later deleted". Evening Standard (London). Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  37. ↑ Laura Hughes (21 December 2015). "Conservative MP facing allegations of bullying staff criticises her alleged victim in deleted statement". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  38. ↑ "My actions were stupid, Telford MP Lucy Allan admits". Shropshire Star. 18 January 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  39. ↑ http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2016/05/02/lucy-allan-mp-under-fire-over-junior-doctors-facebook-post/
  40. ↑ "Lucy Allan MP: It is time to get back to work". Shropshire Star. 18 January 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  41. ↑ "Telford MP Lucy Allan will vote to leave the EU". Shropshire Star. 15 January 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  42. ↑ "Riversdale Primary School website". Riversdaleprimaryschool.co.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  43. ↑ "Karren Brady pays tribute to tragic Georgia Williams". Shropshire Star. 2 August 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  44. ↑ "Profile: Telford's new MP Lucy Allan bags her seat in the new Parliament". Shropshire Star. 23 May 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
David Wright		 Member of Parliament
for Telford
2015–present 		Incumbent
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