Janet Royall

Lady Jan Royall
Born	Janet Anne Royall 20 August 1955 Gloucester, United Kingdom
Alma mater	Queen Mary University of London, University of London
Children	• Charlie Ned • Harry
Spouse	Stuart Hercock
Member of	European Council on Foreign Relations
Party	Labour
British Labour Party politician  Shadow Leader of the House of Lords  In office 11 May 2010 - 27 May 2015 Succeeded by Angela Smith  Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster  In office 5 June 2009 - 11 May 2010 Preceded by Liam Byrne  Leader of the House of Lords  In office 3 October 2008 - 11 May 2010 Preceded by Catherine Ashton  Lord President of the Council In office 2 October 2008 - 5 June 2009 Succeeded by Peter Mandelson  Chief Whip in the House of Lords In office 24 January 2008 - 3 October 2008  Member of the House of Lords  In office 25 June 2004 - Present

Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon is a British Labour Party politician who announced in May 2015 that she would not seek re-election as the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords.

Background

Janet Royall grew up in Hucclecote and Newnham-on-Severn, where her parents ran a shop.

She was educated at the Royal Forest of Dean Grammar School and Westfield College, University of London, and graduated in Spanish and French in 1977.

In the 1980s Jan Royall was a Special Adviser to Neil Kinnock, the Leader of the Labour Party, and has remained a close ally of his ever since. She sought selection as Labour's candidate for Ogmore in a 2002 by-election. However, the constituency party preferred Huw Irranca-Davies as their candidate. When in 2003 she became head of the European Commission office in Wales, there were calls for her to stand down because of her connections to the Labour Party.

Ennobled

On 25 June 2004, she was created Baroness Royall of Blaisdon. In the House of Lords, she became government spokesperson for Health, International Development and Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

On 24 January 2008 Lady Royall was appointed government chief whip in the House of Lords, following the resignation of Lord Grocott. She was appointed a Privy Counsellor later in the year. On 3 October 2008, she was promoted to the Cabinet by Gordon Brown, who made her Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. On 5 June 2009, Royall was succeeded as Lord President by Lord Mandelson, and was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

She voted for a 100% elected House, on the last occasion that the House of Lords voted on Reform of the House of Lords in March 2007. She has called for a national referendum on any reforms of the chamber.

In September 2012, she spoke out against the proposed badger cull.

Royall Report

In August 2016, Lady Jan Royall produced a report entitled "Allegations of antisemitism, Oxford University Labour Club".

In October 2016, the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) published its report entitled "Antisemitism in the UK".

Tony Greenstein of Free Speech on Israel commented:

When it comes to the affair of Oxford University Labour Club the HASC makes its intentions clear. It complains that the Royall Report wasn’t published by Labour’s National Executive Committee in full. That might be because it contained no evidence of antisemitism at the Labour Club. When Royall first reported, she wrote on the web site of the Zionist Jewish Labour Movement that:

‘I know that you will share my disappointment and frustration that the main headline coming out of my inquiry is that there is no institutional Antisemitism in Oxford University Labour Club.’

What kind of political clown is disappointed that she couldn’t find any institutional antisemitism? In fact Royall found no individual antisemitism either. By her own admission she was ‘honoured but daunted when asked by the NEC to undertake this inquiry.’ It was clearly all too much for her. What she found was a remarkably thin gruel. She reported that she was aware of ‘one case of serious false allegations of antisemitism which was reported to the police.’

All she had to say was that ‘I received a number of complaints of incidents of alleged antisemitic behaviour by individual members of OULC. I have also received evidence that members of the Club, including past office holders of the Club, have not witnessed antisemitic behaviour by other members. It is clear to me from the weight of witnessed allegations received that there have been some incidents of antisemitic behaviour. However, it is not clear to me to what extent this behaviour constituted intentional or deliberate acts of antisemitism. This is particularly true of historic hearsay evidence.’ We get no inkling as to what this behaviour consists of. In the end she sees ‘no value in pursuing disciplinary cases against students who may be better advised as to their conduct’ which suggests that whatever she was told was clearly not serious. It is little wonder that the Report was not published.

Even the Parliamentary Report observes that these allegations arose when the non-Jewish Zionist Chair of Oxford University Labour Club, Alex Chalmers, a former intern for the Zionist propaganda organisation BICOM, objected to the Club supporting Oxford University’s Israel Apartheid Week. The HASC report fails to explain what this has to do with antisemitism.

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