22 Facts About Fiona Mactaggart

Fiona Margaret Mactaggart was born on 12 September 1953 and is a British politician and former primary school teacher who has been chair of the Fawcett Society since 2018.

Fiona Mactaggart read for a BA in English at King's College London, an MA at the Institute of Education and a PGCE at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Fiona Mactaggart was Press and Public Relations Officer for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations for six months before being General Secretary of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants from 1982 to 1987.

Fiona Mactaggart was a primary school teacher in Peckham from 1987 to 1992, noting "I have a voice that children can hear at the other end of the playground".

Fiona Mactaggart was elected to Wandsworth Council in 1986 to represent the Shaftesbury ward and was Leader of the Labour Group from 1988 to 1990, when she lost her seat.

Fiona Mactaggart was elected as Labour MP for Slough in 1997.

Fiona Mactaggart was selected to stand for election for Labour through an all-women shortlist.

Fiona Mactaggart suggested the play and its author would benefit from the violent protests, adding that the controversy was "a sign of a lively flourishing cultural life".

In November 2008, Fiona Mactaggart attracted criticism for using unreliable statistics during a parliamentary debate on prostitution.

Fiona Mactaggart was asked how those criminalised by a new law were supposed to know if a prostitute had been trafficked or not.

In May 2011, Fiona Mactaggart was criticised by the Association of Political Thought for calling some of the views of London School of Economics professor of political and gender theory Anne Phillips "frankly nauseating" because of her supposed support for prostitution.

Fiona Mactaggart had previously caused controversy with her hard-line approach to the issue of prostitution by comparing men who use prostitutes to abusers of children, stating "I don't think most men who use prostitutes think of themselves as child abusers, but they are".

In February 2014 Fiona Mactaggart asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, if he would "make it his policy not to offer job subsidies for employing teenagers as auxiliary workers in adult entertainment establishments".

Later in 2014 Fiona Mactaggart was appointed to the Intelligence and Security Committee.

Fiona Mactaggart abstained in the September 2014 vote on whether or not to enter the war against ISIL.

Fiona Mactaggart stood down prior to the 2017 general election, citing how divisive politics had become.

Fiona Mactaggart's father, the late Sir Ian Mactaggart, Bt, was a multimillionaire Glasgow property developer, Conservative candidate and Eurosceptic.

Fiona Mactaggart's mother's father, Sir Herbert Williams, Bt, was a Conservative Member of Parliament for 27 years.

Fiona Mactaggart's great-grandfather was Sir John Mactaggart, the first treasurer of the first branch of Keir Hardie's Labour Party.

Fiona Mactaggart owns three homes, one in London, one on the Isle of Islay and a flat in Slough.

Fiona Mactaggart has multiple sclerosis and is an ovarian cancer survivor.

Fiona Mactaggart's sister stood as a Parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Democrats in Devizes in the 1992 General Election.