The Right Honourable
The Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke
PC
Official portrait, 2018
British High Commissioner to Australia
In office
1 September 2005 – 1 October 2009
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Gordon Brown
Preceded byThe Lord Goodlad
Succeeded byThe Baroness Amos
Secretary of State for Scotland
In office
24 January 2001 – 12 June 2003
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byJohn Reid
Succeeded byAlistair Darling
Minister of State for Trade and Industry
In office
29 July 1999 – 24 January 2001
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byJohn Battle
Succeeded byPeter Hain
Minister of State for Transport
In office
17 May 1999 – 29 July 1999
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byJohn Reid
Succeeded byThe Lord Macdonald of Tradeston
Minister of State for Scotland
In office
28 July 1998 – 17 May 1999
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byBrian Wilson
Succeeded byBrian Wilson
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office
3 May 1997 – 27 July 1998
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byAngela Knight
Succeeded byPatricia Hewitt
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
7 July 2010
Life peerage
Member of Parliament
for Airdrie and Shotts
Monklands East (1994–97)
In office
30 June 1994 – 11 April 2005
Preceded byJohn Smith
Succeeded byJohn Reid
Personal details
Born (1950-12-06) 6 December 1950
Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland
Political partyLabour
Spouse
Alistair Handerson Liddell
​
​
(m. 1972)​
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Strathclyde

Helen Lawrie Liddell, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke PC (née Reilly; born 6 December 1950) is a British politician and life peer who served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 2001 to 2003 and British High Commissioner to Australia from 2005 to 2009. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Airdrie and Shotts, previously Monklands East, from 1994 to 2005.

Early life

Liddell was born to Hugh Reilly, a Catholic, and Bridget Lawrie Reilly, a Protestant.[1][2] She was educated at St. Patrick's Catholic High School in Coatbridge, attending at the same time as John Reid, and graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a BA in Economics.

Early career

Liddell worked as a BBC Scotland economics journalist from 1976 to 1977. At the age of 26, she served as the first female General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party from 1977 to 1988. She was subsequently public affairs director of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, working for media proprietor Robert Maxwell.[3][4]

Business Interests

Appointed Director of Annington Limited, 1st April 2017. The British Ministry of Defence, as of November 2022, are trying to regain ownership of the housing stock that was sold off to Annington in 1996. As Chair of Annington, Baroness Liddell defended Annington via a letter to the British Defence Secretary saying she was "shocked" by the Government's approach.

Parliamentary career

She first contested the Parliamentary constituency of East Fife at the October 1974 general election.

House of Commons

Liddell was first elected to Parliament in 1994, at the closely contested Monklands East by-election following John Smith's death. She was appointed a Privy Councillor on 27 October 1998.[5]

She was Secretary of State for Scotland from 2001 to 2003, a position whose powers had been transferred to the Scottish Executive after devolution in 1999. In addition, she angered the monks of Buckfast Abbey when she called on them to stop selling Buckfast in Scotland. She was dubbed Minister for Monarch of the Glen after several visits to the set of the hit BBC series.[4]

The disclosure that she was able to work French lessons into her ministerial diary,[6] raised questions about the relevance of Scottish Secretary's job post-devolution. The role was abolished as a full-time position in 2003, when the Scotland Office was rolled into the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

She took up appointment as British High Commissioner to Australia in the summer of 2005,[7] and was succeeded in the role by Baroness Amos in October 2009.[8]

House of Lords

On 28 May 2010, it was announced in the Dissolution Honours List that she would be created a life peer.[9] On 7 July, she took the title Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke, of Airdrie in the County of Lanarkshire,[10] six days later becoming a House of Lords member.[11] She is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.[12] In 2010–11 Liddell was a member of the independent Philips inquiry into the 1994 Scotland RAF Chinook crash on the Mull of Kintyre, established by the Secretary of State for Defence.[13]

Personal life

She married Alistair Liddell in 1972; they have one son and one daughter.[14]

Publications

  • Liddell, Helen (1990). Elite. Century.

References

  1. ↑ Publications, Europa (2003). The International Who's Who 2004. Psychology Press. p. 1004. ISBN 978-1-85743-217-6.
  2. ↑ "Helen's secret shocks the Pope". The Daily Telegraph.
  3. ↑ "Business News". Coventry Telegraph. 30 March 2001. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011.
  4. 1 2 "Jackie Ashley meets Helen Liddell, the Scottish secretary". The Guardian. 27 January 2003. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  5. ↑ "Helen Liddell Appointed to Transport Minister Post", Local Government Chronicle, 19 May 1999
  6. ↑ "Helen Do-little". The Daily Telegraph. London. 6 February 2002. Archived from the original on 22 March 2007. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  7. ↑ Tempest, Matthew (2 April 2004). "Liddell set to be Australian high commissioner". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  8. ↑ "Change of British High Commissioner to Australia" (Press release). British High Commission, Canberra. 3 July 2009. Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
  9. ↑ "Peerages, honours and appointments". 10 Downing Street. 28 May 2010. Archived from the original on 1 June 2010. Retrieved 24 June 2010.
  10. ↑ "No. 59485". The London Gazette. 12 July 2010. p. 13181.
  11. ↑ "Helen Liddell goes to the Lords". BBC News Online. 13 July 2010. Archived from the original on 16 July 2010.
  12. ↑ "LFI Supporters in Parliament". Labour Friends of Israel. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  13. ↑ Lord Philip; Lord Forsyth of Drumlean; Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke; Malcolm Bruce (13 July 2011). The Mull of Kintyre Review (PDF). House of Commons. ISBN 978-0-1029-5237-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 May 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
  14. ↑ Debrett's People of Today

Further reading

  • Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)
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