Dame Tessa Howell died aged 70
Ex-Labour cabinet minister Dame Tessa Jowell, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in May last year, has died aged 70 on Saturday. Ex-PM Tony Blair said she left an “enormous” legacy as “everything she touched turned into gold in some way, whether it was advancing equal pay for women, starting Sure Start, which is an immense programme for children in our country or of course bringing the Olympics to Britain”. She earned a minute-long standing ovation in the House of Lords in January for speaking about her condition.
Prime Minister Theresa May said the dignity and courage with which Dame Tessa had confronted her illness was “humbling” and “inspirational”, and her campaigning was a “lasting tribute to a lifetime of public service”.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Dame Tessa would be remembered for her “courage, strength and compassion for others”.
Lord Sebastian Coe, President of the IAAF and former chairman of the London organising committee of the Olympic Games, said London 2012 would not have happened without Dame Tessa.
David Beckham, who was an ambassador during the Olympic bid, posted on Instagram that “amazing woman” Dame Tessa “will be missed by so many”.
Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, DBE, PC was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood from 1992 to 2015. Born on 17th September 1947, in Marylebone, sparked a debate on access to innovative and experimental treatments on the NHS, and is the first to donate her medical information to a universal database call the Universal Cancer Databank.
As an MP in the House of Commons, Jowell was known as the unfailing cheerleader for Blair’s leadership of New Labour “ The Ultimate sensible loyalist”. She dealt with some of the most testing social policy briefs in government, including The Queens’ golden jubilee, broadcasting policy, licensing hours, gambling laws, equality legislation, tobacco advertising and the nation’s diet. Her reputation as a “people politician” led to her being given ministerial responsibility of helping the families of British victims of 2001 attacks on the New York Trade Center and helping victim of the 2005 July terrorist attacks on the London Transport system.
Tessa was the oldest of three children of Kenneth Palmer, a doctor and his wife Rosemary Douglas, a radiologist and an artist. Tessa was born in London, educated at Aberdeen’s St Margaret’s school for girls and the University of Aberdeen, where she studied general arts, sociology and psychology and also got a degree in social administration at Edinburgh University before moving to London, working as a childcare officer in Lambeth and then qualifying as a psychiatric social worker at Goldsmith’s college, University of London. In 1971 she was elected to Camden Council in London and within two years was chairing the social services committee. From 1990 until her election to parliament she worked for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and was a senior visiting fellow at the health and social care charity the King’s Fund.
