Harriet Slater
CBE
Member of Parliament
for Stoke-on-Trent North
In office
31 March 1953 – 30 March 1966
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byAlbert Davies
Succeeded byJohn Forrester
Personal details
Born
Harriet Evans

1903 (1903)
Died12 October 1976(1976-10-12) (aged 72–73)
Political partyLabour

Harriet Slater CBE (née Evans; 1903 – 12 October 1976) was a British Labour and Co-operative politician.

Life and career

Slater, née Evans, was born in Tunstall, Staffordshire, on 3 July 1903.[1] Educated at Hanley High School and Dudley Teachers' Training College, she was National Organiser for the Co-operative Party from 1942 to 1953, and a local councillor in Stoke-on-Trent from 1933 to 1965.[1]

Slater was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent North at a by-election in 1953, and served until her retirement at the 1966 general election.[2][3] From 1964 to 1966, she was a Government whip, the first woman to become one, with the formal title of Lord of the Treasury.[4]

Ruth Smeeth writes that Slater saw her role in Parliament as "being a practical advocate for the working-class, especially working-class women ... As her parliamentary colleague Laurie Pavitt MP once wrote of her, Harriet was Stoke-on-Trent. She knew what mattered to the people she represented, because she was one of them."[1] Slater's maiden speech was about racial justice, made spontaneously because of her strong feelings about equality.[1]

She was married to Frederick Slater, whom she met through the Co-operative movement.[1]

Slater was granted a life peerage on her retirement from Parliament.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Smeeth, Ruth (4 September 2018). "Harriet Slater". In Dale, Iain; Smith, Jacqui (eds.). The Honourable Ladies: Volume I: Profiles of Women MPs 1918–1996. Biteback Publishing. pp. 227–. ISBN 978-1-78590-449-3. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  2. ↑ "Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics". www.qub.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  3. ↑ "Labour Women in Parliament". Labour Women's Network. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  4. ↑ "The role of the Whips in Parliament". UK Parliament. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  5. ↑ Short, Edward (1989). Whip to Wilson. Macdonald. p. 251. ISBN 978-0-356-17615-4. Retrieved 24 January 2021.


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