Contact details
Westminster
House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
Tel: 020 7219 5850
Fax: 020 7219 1174
williamss@parliament.uk
Biography
Electoral history
Contested (as Labour) Harwich 1954 and 1955 and Southampton Test 1959 general elections. MP (Labour) for Hitchin 1964-74, for Hertford and Stevenage 1974-79. Contested (as Labour) Hertford and Stevenage 1979 general election. MP (SDP) for Crosby November 1981 by-election to 1983. Contested (as SDP) Crosby 1983 and (as SDP/Alliance) Cambridge 1987 general elections
Parliamentary career
PPS to Kenneth Robinson as Minister of Health 1964-66;
Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Labour 1966-67;
Minister of State:
Department of Education and Science 1967-69,
Home Office 1969-70;
Secretary of State for:
Prices and Consumer Protection 1974-76,
Education and Science 1976-79;
Paymaster General 1976-79
Lords career
Liberal Democrat peers:
Deputy Leader 1999-2001,
Leader 2001-04;
Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 1998-2001
Party groups
Joined the Labour Party 1946;
Member, Labour Party National Executive Committee 1970-81;
Social Democratic Party:
Co-founder 1981,
President 1982-88
Councils, public bodies
Visiting Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford 1967-75;
Director, Turing Institute, Glasgow 1985-90;
Board member, Rand Corporation, Europe 1993-2001;
Governor, Ditchley Foundation 1994-;
Member, Advisory Committee on Business Appointments 1999-2001;
Board member:
Nuclear Threat Initiative (USA) 2002-,
Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies;
Member, advisory committee, Century Foundation
International bodies
Board member:
Moscow School of Political Studies 1992-,
European Movement 1993-;
Member, International Advisory Committee Council on Foreign Relations, New York 1994-2006;
President, British-Russian Society and East-West Centre 1996-2000;
Co-chair, Anglo-Dutch Society 1998-2001;
Council member, Britain in Europe;
Board Member:
International Crisis Group, Brussels 1998-2001,
Overseers of John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University 2001-;
Commissioner, International Commission on Nuclear Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament 2008-10
Political interests
Globalisation, human rights, international affairs, civil liberties
Name, style and title
Raised to the peerage as Baroness Williams of Crosby, of Stevenage in the County of Hertfordshire 1993
Register of Interests
2: Remunerated employment, office, profession etc.
2-3 lectures a year for which a fee is paid
Advance payments from Little Brown, publishers, in connection with publication of my autobiography "Climbing the Bookshelves"
Several appearances on BBC Question Time and Any Questions, for which BBC paid a fee
7: Overseas visits
Visit to Berlin, 29-30 June 2011, with European Leadership Network (ELN); cost of flights, food and accommodation met by ELN
Visit to Russia, 22-23 July 2011; flight, accommodation and food paid for by Moscow School of Political Studies
10: Non-financial interests (c)
Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies
The Tablet Trust
Century Foundation (USA)
10: Non-financial interests (d)
Commissioner, International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND)
10: Non-financial interests (e)
Governor, Ditchley Foundation
Board Member, Moscow School of Political Studies
Board Member, Nuclear Threat Initiative, Washington DC
Vice President, CAFOD