16 Facts About Joan Lestor

Joan Lestor, Baroness Lestor of Eccles was a British Labour politician.

Joan Lestor was MP for Eton and Slough between 1966 and 1983, and MP for Eccles from 1987 to 1997.

Joan Lestor grew up in the United Kingdom from the age of five.

Joan Lestor was educated at Blaenavon Secondary School, Monmouth; William Morris High School, Walthamstow and the University of London.

Joan Lestor became a nursery school teacher and a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, but resigned from the latter over the Turner Controversy.

Joan Lestor became a councillor in 1958 on the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth and later the London Borough of Wandsworth.

Joan Lestor served on London County Council, losing in Lewisham West at the 1961 election, but winning a by-election to represent Wandsworth Central from 1962 until 1964.

Joan Lestor contested Lewisham West in 1964 and was elected member of parliament for Eton and Slough in 1966.

Joan Lestor was briefly a junior minister from 1969 to 1970 with responsibility for nursery education.

Joan Lestor was one of the founding editors of anti-fascist monthly, Searchlight, though that magazine had only a tenuous connection to the current publication.

Joan Lestor was returned for Eccles in 1987, and held this seat until 1997.

Joan Lestor served in the shadow cabinet between 1989 and 1996 firstly as Shadow Spokesperson for Children and Families and subsequently as Shadow Minister for Overseas Development.

Joan Lestor resigned on 25 July 1996 after announcing that she was not seeking re-election at the next election.

On 4 June 1997, Joan Lestor was created a life peer as Baroness Joan Lestor of Eccles, of Tooting Bec in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

In 1952, Joan Lestor married David McGregor, but they divorced soon afterwards.

Joan Lestor died from motor neuron disease at the Royal Trinity Hospice in London on 27 March 1998.