After she had left Parliament, Stuart was appointed by the Conservative government as chair of Wilton Park, an executive agency of the UK Foreign Office dedicated to conflict resolution in international relations, in October 2018. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Constitution Reform Group (CRG), a cross-party organisation chaired by Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, which seeks a new constitutional settlement in the UK by way of a new Act of Union. The Constitution Reform Group's new Act of Union Bill was introduced as a Private Member's Bill on 9 October 2018.
Gisela Gschaider was born in Velden, Bavaria, West Germany on 26 November 1955 to Martin and Liane Gschaider.[4][5] She attended the Staatliche Realschule[note 1] in Vilsbiburg.[4] After doing an apprenticeship in bookselling, she moved to the UK in 1974 in order to improve her English and to do a Business Studies course at Manchester Polytechnic.[6] She was deputy director of the 1983 London Book Fair.[7] 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.[8] She began researching for a PhD in trust law (ownership of pension funds) at the University of Birmingham while she also lectured Law to AAT students at Worcestershire College, but did not complete her PhD and instead went into politics full-time.[1]
In 1995, Stuart was selected as Labour's parliamentary candidate for the Birmingham Edgbaston constituency. The constituency, which had once been held by former Conservative Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain (1937–40), had returned only Conservative MPs for 99 years. The sitting Conservative MP at the time, Dame Jill Knight, was retiring after 31 years. On 1 May 1997, Stuart was elected as the first-ever Labour MP for the constituency, making it one of a succession of traditional Conservative seats to fall to Labour control in a landslide victory for the party. Stuart's victory was the first televised Labour gain of the evening.
In Blair's second ministry, 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 thirteen members of the Convention's Presidium – the steering group responsible for managing the business of the Convention and which drafted the text of the constitution then approved by the full Convention.
After the draft Constitution emerged, Stuart became one of the most trenchant critics of the proposal, 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.[12] Consequently, she argued in favour of British withdrawal from the European Union, becoming one of the leading Eurosceptic figures in the Labour Party.[13] These views were countered in a rebuttal by the European Parliamentary Labour Party spokesman on EU constitutional affairs published on-line by the Fabians and in a pamphlet publihed by the Labour Movement for Europe[14]
In October 2004, she became the only Labour MP who openly supported the re-election of George W. Bush at that year's U.S. 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".[15]
Between 2001 and 2010, Stuart also served as a member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs.[10]
She retained her seat at the 2005 election but her majority was 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. The election resulted in the first hung parliament in 36 years, with the Conservatives having the most seats.[16] 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.[17] She retained her seat at the 2015 election with a majority of 2,706 votes, more than double her majority from 2010.[18] She joined the Commons Select Committee on Defence.[10]
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.[19]
Since 2015, Stuart has been a Steering Committee member of the Constitution Reform Group (CRG), a cross-party pressure group of current and former politicians, academics, constitutional law experts, former officials in Parliament and government and ordinary citizens.[21] The CRG seeks a new constitutional settlement in the UK by way of a new Act of Union.[22] The Constitution Reform Group's new Act of Union Bill was introduced as a Private Member's Bill by Lord Lisvane in the House of Lords on 9 October 2018, when it received a formal first reading. The BBC described the Bill as "one to watch" in that Parliament.[23]
Stuart served as Chair of Vote Leave, the body which was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum on European Union membership. Other spokespersons for Vote Leave included Conservative MPs Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. There were various other groups advocating for Leave, officially working independently of Vote Leave, including UKIP and the Labour Leave.
In the BBC's two-hour televised debate on the EU referendum, Stuart appeared on the "Leave" panel, along with the Conservative MPs Andrea Leadsom and Boris Johnson.[28]
Stuart's own constituency of Birmingham Edgbaston voted to Remain in the EU.[29]
Stuart became the chair of Wilton Park, an executive agency of the UK Foreign Office dedicated to conflict resolution in international relations, on 1 October 2018.[33] From 2020-2022 Stuart was the lead non-executive board member of the Cabinet Office. She was appointed as First Civil Service Commissioner in March 2022.
In 2021, Stuart was appointed chair of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee for a term of five years from 1 March 2021 to 28 February 2026.[35]
Personal life
She is a Catholic.[36] She has two sons. She married Robert Stuart in 1980, and they divorced in 2000. She then married Derek Scott in 2010. Scott died in 2012.[4]
Notes
^In the selective German education system, a "realschule" is a school for adolescents with average academic abilities.
References
^ abC. K. Jones, The People's University (London, 2008), p. 33