Baroness Margaret Jay

Baroness Margaret Jay’s career has combined government service, the media, and business. She graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and began a 20-year career in broadcasting.

Ms. Jay was appointed a life peer in July 1992 and acted as an opposition Whip in the House of Lords. She was also appointed as the first director of the National AIDS Trust. Following the Labor Party election victory in 1997, she was appointed to Tony Blair’s government first as a Minister of State in the Department of Health and later to the Cabinet as Leader of the House of Lords, Lord Privy Seal and Minister for Women. She played a pivotal role in the major reform that led to the removal of more than 660 hereditary peers (most of its hereditary members) from the House of Lords.

Ms. Jay left government in 2001 and serves on the board of British Telecom and the Independent News and Media Company. In 2007 she served as co-chair of the Iraq Commission. Since 2011 she has been Chair of the Select Committee on the Constitution in the House of Lords.