Josie Farrington, Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton

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

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.

Early life

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

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

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

  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.