This month marks the anniversary of the birth of Jennie Lee in 1904. A Scottish socialist and Labour MP, she was elected to parliament in 1929 at the age of 24, at a time when women under 30 had only just been given the right to vote.
Born before the first television broadcast, she went on to become the first Minister for the Arts in Harold Wilson’s government. She was elected before Cambridge University would award women degrees, and played a key role in the creation of the Open University, harnessing the “white heat of technology” to create educational routes for those denied other opportunities to study. She both reflected and drove enormous changes in our politics, our society, and the Labour party.
Today, Scottish Labour will only thrive if we too reflect and drive the changes in our society.
