Claire Ward

Claire Margaret Ward (born 9 May 1972) is a British Labour Party politician who was elected Mayor of the East Midlands in May 2024. Previously, she served as Member of Parliament for Watford from 1997 to 2010. Ward was a Government Whip from 2005 to 2009 and a Justice Minister from 2009 to 2010.

Ward was born in North Shields, Northumberland, the daughter of Frank and Cathy Ward. Both her parents were Labour Party councillors and her father stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for Hertsmere at the 1987 general election. She was brought up in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, where she attended the Loreto College, an all-girls Roman Catholic school in St Albans, and studied at the newly created University of Hertfordshire, graduating with a LLB (Law degree) in 1993. She then completed an MA on Britain and the European Union at Brunel University, before qualifying as a solicitor at the College of Law in London. From 1995 to 1998, she was a trainee solicitor.

Ward joined the Labour Party, the Co-operative Party and the Transport and General Workers' Union at the age of fifteen, becoming an active member of Young Labour. In 1990, she won the South East TUC Mike Perkins Memorial Award for Young Trade Unionists before being elected as the Youth Representative on Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) the following year.

She was elected as a councillor for Elstree and Borehamwood Town Council in 1994, where she served as Mayor from 1996 to 1997. She stepped down from the Labour Party NEC in 1995 upon her selection as the party's candidate for Watford.

Ward became the MP for Watford at the 1997 general election, succeeding the former Conservative Party Deputy Chief Whip Tristan Garel-Jones, who had retired, and defeating Conservative candidate Robert Gordon by 5,792 votes. Elected at the age of 24, she was not quite the youngest MP, being a month older than Chris Leslie, the new MP for Shipley, although she was the youngest woman elected to the House of Commons. She was also the youngest female MP elected in the 2001 election.

Following her election, Ward became a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. From 2000 to 2002, she was the Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Chocolate and Confectionery Industry Group. In the 2001 general election she retained her seat by 5,555 votes and was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Hutton.

The increasing dominance of local politics in Watford Borough council by the Liberal Democrats, including the election of a Liberal Democrat mayor, led to speculation that Ward would find re-election extremely difficult; Ward even accused staff from the council of harassment during the 2005 general election campaign. However, she managed to hold off a strong Liberal Democrat challenge from Sal Brinton; despite a 12% swing against her, Ward held the seat with a majority of 1,148 votes (approximately 2.3%). The Conservative candidate was narrowly pushed into third place, with 793 fewer votes than Brinton, making Watford a three-way marginal seat.

Upon her re-election in May 2005, Ward was appointed an Assistant Government Whip before being promoted to full Whip, as a Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, on 5 May 2006. She was promoted again in October 2008 to Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, the lowest of the senior Whips. At the June 2009 Cabinet reshuffle, she replaced Shahid Malik as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice.