Janet Anderson - Parliamentary Career

Parliamentary Career

Anderson re-fought Rossendale and Darwen successfully at the 1992 General Election, winning by just 120 votes. She became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Beckett, which she held for a year.

She was an opposition whip from 1994–96, before being appointed Shadow Minister for Women. While in this role she notoriously joked in an interview that women would become "more promiscuous" under a Labour government.

In 1996, in response to campaigns to deal with the problem of stalking, she presented the Stalking Bill 1996 to Parliament under the Ten Minute Rule, with support from 64 other MPs. The bill failed to get government support, as it was felt that the proposed offence failed to distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable conduct.

Following the 1997 general election Anderson became a junior whip in Tony Blair's new government, before being promoted to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 1998, where she was the Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting and was responsible for bringing in the popular free TV licences for the over-75s.

Anderson returned to the back benches following the 2001 general election. She subsequently served on the Home Affairs Select Committee, before becoming a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and the House of Commons Administration Committee. She was also on the Chairmen's Panel Committee. She was defeated in the 2010 general election by Conservative candidate Jake Berry in an 8.9% swing to the Conservatives. Berry overturned a Labour majority of 3,616 to win by 4,493 votes.