Introduction
Gisela Stuart (née Gschaider; born 26 November 1955) is a British Eurosceptic Labour Party politician, who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Edgbaston from 1997 to 2017. Born and raised in West Germany, she has lived in Britain since 1974.
Stuart served as Chair and leader of the Vote Leave Campaign Committee as Co-Convenor with Conservative Michael Gove MP. The Vote Leave campaign was successful in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016. Since September 2016, Stuart has served as Chair of Vote Leave's successor organisation, Change Britain.
Early life
Gisela Gschaider was born in Velden, Bavaria, and raised in her parents' Roman Catholic faith. She attended the Realschule Vilsbiburg on Amselstraße in Vilsbiburg.
After serving an apprenticeship in bookselling she moved to Britain in 1974 in order to improve her English and to undertake a Business Studies course at Manchester Polytechnic. Stuart subsequently relocated to the Midlands.
She graduated from the University of London with an LLB in 1993, having studied through the University of London External System. She began researching for a PhD in trust law (ownership of pension funds) at the University of Birmingham whilst also lecturing Law to AAT students at Worcestershire College, but did not complete her PhD and instead went into politics full-time.
In 1994, as Gisela Gschaider, Stuart contested the Worcester and South Warwickshire seat at the European Elections for Labour. She lost by 1,000 votes.
Parliamentary career
In 1995, Stuart was selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for the Birmingham Edgbaston constituency. The seat, which had once been held by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, had returned Conservative MPs for 99 years. The incumbent Conservative MP, Dame Jill Knight, was retiring after 31 years. On 1 May 1997, Stuart was elected as the first ever Labour MP for the seat, making it one of a succession of traditionally Tory seats to fall in the landslide Labour victory. Stuart's victory was the first televised Labour gain of the evening.
During the first Tony Blair premiership, Stuart served on the Social Security Select Committee and in 1998 as PPS to Home Office Minister of State Paul Boateng, before joining the Government in 1999 as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health. Stuart left the Government in the reshuffle that followed the 2001 General Election. Her election agent in that election was John Clancy, who in 2015 became leader of Birmingham City Council.
In Blair's second term, Stuart was appointed as one of the UK Parliamentary Representatives to the European Convention, which was tasked with drawing up a new constitution for the European Union. In this capacity, Stuart also served as one of the 13 members of the Convention's Presidium - the steering group responsible for managing the business of the Convention.
When the draft Constitution emerged, Stuart was amongst its most trenchant critics, stating that it had been drawn up by a "self-selected group of the European political elite" determined to deepen European integration. She subsequently expounded these views in a 2004 Fabian Society pamphlet, "The Making of Europe's Constitution". Consequently, she has argued in favour of leaving the European Union, thus becoming one of the leading figures in Labour's eurosceptic wing. In the BBC's 2-hour televised debate on the EU referendum, Stuart appeared on the "Leave" panel, along with Andrea Leadsom and Boris Johnson.
Between 2001 and 2010, Stuart also served as a member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs.
She held Birmingham Edgbaston for Labour at the 2005 General Election but her majority was exactly halved in both percentage and numerical terms. Despite the predictions of the pundits, Stuart went on to retain the seat at the 2010 general election, against a national tide of Labour defeat. It earned her the title of Survivor of the Year at The Spectator magazine's 2010 Parliamentarian of the Year awards, which was presented to her by the new Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron. She retained her seat at the 2015 General Election with a majority of 2,706, more than double her majority from 2010. She joined the Commons Select Committee on Defence.
In October 2004, she became the only Labour MP who openly supported the re-election of George W. Bush in that year's US presidential election, arguing "you know where you stand with George and, in today's world, that's much better than rudderless leaders who drift with the prevailing wind". She wrote that a victory for Democratic Party challenger, John Kerry, would prompt "victory celebrations among those who want to destroy liberal democracies. More terrorists and suicide bombers would step forward to become martyrs in their quest to destroy the West".
Stuart is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society principles, which promote the spread of liberal democracy across the world and the maintenance of a strong military with global expeditionary reach. She is the editor of the weekly political magazine The House.
She announced on 19th April 2017 that she would not stand in the upcoming 2017 general election
Vote Leave
Stuart served as Chair of the successful Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 European Union membership referendum, which opposed the Labour Party Labour In for Britain campaign. Stuart served as a principal figurehead for Vote Leave, along with Conservative MPs Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.
As chair of Vote Leave she said: "Rather than sending money abroad to countries that want to join the EU, I believe we should be spending our money on our priorities here in the UK. Instead of giving an extra 88 million people - more than our entire population - access to the NHS I believe it would be safer to take back control. We should give our struggling NHS the £350m we send to the EU every week".
Voting record
How Stuart voted on key matters since 2001:
- Voted for introducing a smoking ban
- Voted for introducing ID cards
- Voted for introducing foundation hospitals
- Voted for introducing student top-up fees
- Voted for Labour's anti-terrorism laws
- Voted for the Iraq War
- Voted against investigating the Iraq War
- Voted for replacing the Trident nuclear programme
- Voted for ban on fox hunting
- Voted for equal gay rights
- Voted for leaving the European Union