Josie Farrington, Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton

Josephine Farrington, Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (née Cayless; 29 June 1940 – 30 March 2018)[1] was a British Labour Party politician, active in local government internationally before her elevation to the Lords in 1994.

The Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton
Farrington in parliament, 2017
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
In office
29 September 1994 – 30 March 2018
Personal details
Born
Josephine Cayless

(1940-06-29)29 June 1940
Loughborough, England
Died30 March 2018(2018-03-30) (aged 77)
London, England
Political partyLabour
Spouse
Michael Farrington
(m. 1960)
Children3

Early life

edit

Josephine Cayless was born in Loughborough in 1940.[2] She worked as a teacher, even though she had left school at age sixteen.[2]

Politics

edit

She was a Preston Borough Councillor from 1973 to 1976.[2] In 1977, she was elected to Lancashire County Council and held several senior positions, including chair of the Education Committee.[3] From 1981 to 1994 she was a Member of the Council of Europe Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities and of its successor the Congress of the Council of Europe.[3] She acted as an international observer at local elections in Poland, Ukraine and Albania.[3] She was also a Member of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union and was Chairman of Education and Training in 1994.[3]

Farrington was the Labour candidate at the 1983 general election for the constituency of West Lancashire and stood for the party again at the 1991 Ribble Valley by-election.[4] On 29 September 1994, she was created a life peer as Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton, of Fulwood in the County of Lancashire.[3][5] She was a government spokesperson in the Lords for several issues between 1997 and 2010.[3]

Personal life

edit

Cayless married Michael Farrington in 1960; the couple had three sons.[2] She died from lung cancer at her residence in Dolphin Square, London, on 30 March 2018, at the age of 77.[2]

References

edit
  1. ^ Simpson, Fiona (30 March 2018). "Former Labour whip Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton dies aged 77". Evening Standard. London. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e Langdon, Julia (2022). "Farrington [née Cayless], Josephine [Josie], Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (1940–2018), politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380477. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Archived from the original on 12 June 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
  4. ^ Timmins, Nicholas (19 August 1994). "Labour names working peers". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
  5. ^ "No. 53809". The London Gazette. 4 October 1994. p. 13881.