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Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon

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The Right Honourable
The Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
PC
Official portrait, 2024
Principal of Somerville College, Oxford
Incumbent
Assumed office
August 2017
Preceded byAlice Prochaska
Leader of the Opposition in the Lords
Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
In office
11 May 2010 – 27 May 2015
LeaderHarriet Harman (Acting)
Ed Miliband
Preceded byThe Lord Strathclyde
Succeeded byThe Baroness Smith of Basildon
Ministerial offices 2005–2010
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byLiam Byrne
Succeeded byThe Lord Strathclyde
Leader of the House of Lords
In office
3 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byThe Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Succeeded byThe Lord Strathclyde
Lord President of the Council
In office
2 October 2008 – 5 June 2009
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byThe Baroness Ashton of Upholland
Succeeded byThe Lord Mandelson
Chief Whip of the House of Lords
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
In office
24 January 2008 – 3 October 2008
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byThe Lord Grocott
Succeeded byThe Lord Bassam of Brighton
Baroness-in-waiting
Government Whip
In office
10 May 2005 – 25 January 2008
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Gordon Brown
Preceded byThe Lord Triesman
Succeeded byThe Baroness Thornton
Members of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
25 June 2004
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born (1955-08-20) 20 August 1955 (age 69)
Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England
Political partyLabour and Co-operative
Spouse
Stuart Hercock
​
​
(m. 1980; died 2010)​
Children3
Alma materWestfield College, London[1] (BA) Modern Languages (French and Spanish)

Janet Anne Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, PC (born 20 August 1955), is a British Labour Co-operative Party politician. A former secretary and adviser to Neil Kinnock, Royall was appointed to the House of Lords in 2004 after having stood unsuccessfully to be MEP for The Cotswolds and MP for Ipswich and Ogmore.[2][3][4] She was Leader of the House of Lords for the last eighteen months of Gordon Brown's premiership.[5] Royall is the current Principal of Somerville College, Oxford and is a candidate in the 2024 University of Oxford Chancellor election;[6] a leader in The Times questioned Royall's suitability for the role due to her criticism of the Higher Education Act and her support for unconscious bias training.[7][8]

Education and early political career

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Royall grew up in Gloucestershire in Hucclecote and Newnham on Severn and was educated at the Royal Forest of Dean Grammar School and Westfield College, London, where she gained a 2.2 (BA) degree in Modern Languages (Spanish and French) in 1977.[9][10]

Royall's first job after graduating was importing flowers from Colombia and she also trained as a secretary.[11][12] Royall was a secretary and adviser to Neil Kinnock,[13][14] the leader of the Labour Party, in the 1980s, and she has remained a close ally of his ever since. She is reputed to have bought the infamous donkey jacket worn by former leader Michael Foot for his Rembrance Day appearance at the Cenotaph in 1982.[15]

In 1984, Royall stood to be MEP for The Cotswolds, finishing third with 20.7% of the vote. She sought selection as Labour's candidate for Ipswich in a 2001 by-election, losing to Chris Mole;[16] and for Ogmore in a 2002 by-election, losing to Huw Irranca-Davies.[17] In 2003 she became head of the European Commission office in Wales; her appointment was criticised at the time as "an inappropriate political appointment" by Hans Gert Poettering.[18] The head of the EU's offices in the UK, Jim Dougal, told BBC Wales that the appointment was above board and that proper procedures were followed at every stage. Royall did not respond to the demands for her resignation and turned down all requests for interviews.[18]

House of Lords

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On 25 June 2004, she was created a life peer as Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, of Blaisdon in the County of Gloucestershire.[19][20] She spoke for the Labour party on Health, International Development and Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

On 24 January 2008 Royall was appointed government chief whip in the House of Lords, on the resignation of Lord Grocott. She was appointed a Privy Counsellor later in the year. On 3 October 2008, she was appointed to the cabinet by Gordon Brown, as Leader of the House of Lords[21] and Lord President of the Council. On 5 June 2009, Royall was succeeded as Lord President by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, 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.[22] She has called for a national referendum on any reforms of the chamber.

Since 2012, Royall has campaigned for tougher sentencing for people convicted of stalking offences, including the successful tabling of an amendment to increase the maximum sentence for stalking.[23][24] She has advocated for cross-agency information sharing to enable joined-up approaches to combatting stalking.[25]

In September 2012, she spoke out against the proposed badger cull.[26]

In 2013, Royall stood for election to Gloucestershire County Council, finishing fourth with 12% of the vote.[27]

She announced in May 2015 that she would not seek re-election as the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords.[28]

In 2016, she chaired an investigation into allegations of antisemitism in Oxford University Labour Club and was subsequently one of two Vice-Chairs of the Chakrabarti Inquiry into antisemitism in the UK Labour Party.[29][30] Royall's report concluded that people thrown out of the Labour Party for anti-semitic views should not be banned for life.[31][32]

Royall voted against the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 citing concerns about the bureaucracy the Bill would entail as well as her opposition to proposed fines.[33][34] Royall has spoken in the Lords about the importance of free speech in universities and her belief that existing legislation is sufficient.[35] In October 2024, the Free Speech Union commented that Royall had an "apparently lackadaisical approach to free speech."[36]

Jan Royall in 2024

Principal of Somerville College

[edit]

In February 2017, Somerville College, Oxford, announced the selection of Baroness Royall as its next principal.[37] She succeeded Alice Prochaska at the end of August 2017.[37][38] In 2019, Royall attracted media attention following her decision to remove octopus from the college menu[39][40][41][42] and supported the introduction of gender-neutral toilets.[43] As Principal, Royall implemented mandatory unconscious bias training in which students were asked to concede that a black lecturer is more likely to be disliked by the students than her white colleagues, leading to criticism from Toby Young of the Free Speech Union.[44]

She also oversaw an expansion of scholarship provision at Somerville College and initiated outreach to local primary schools. Royall served as Chair of Conference of Colleges[45] from 2020-23, and for two years prior as Deputy Chair.[46] In 2021, Royall led a campaign for Somerville to become a College of Sanctuary, offering a pathway to Oxford for students displaced by war or internal unrest.[47] The University of Oxford has now adopted this campaign, forming a Community of Sanctuary. In May 2024 Royall instructed Thames Valley Police, who were monitoring pro-Palestine protests, to leave the grounds of Somerville College.[48] In 2024, the UK Campaign Against Anti-Semitism wrote a formal letter of complaint after the Somerville College magazine, with a foreword by Royall, omitted any mention of Jewish victims in three articles on the Holocaust.[49][50] It was announced that she would be standing down from the role of Principal of Somerville College at the end of the 2024/25 academic year at the age of 70.[51]

Personal life

[edit]

She was married to Stuart Hercock from 1980 until his death in 2010, and has three children.[52]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Leadership - Queen Mary University of London". www.qmul.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  2. ^ White, Michael; Maguire, Kevin (10 January 2002). "Blairite picked for safe Labour seat". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  3. ^ Glover, Julian (26 October 2001). "Labour to unveil Ipswich shortlist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  4. ^ "BBC NEWS | Talk about Newsnight | Reshuffle ruminations". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
  5. ^ "The Cabinet: Who's Who". 30 November 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  6. ^ "Oxford University could have its first female Chancellor". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
  7. ^ campuses, Labour is complacently ignoring the free speech crisis on university (13 October 2024). "The Times view on challenging students: Free Thinking". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  8. ^ Wright, Oliver (13 October 2024). "Oxford candidate runs into row over freedom of speech". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  9. ^ "Leadership - Queen Mary University of London". www.qmul.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  10. ^ "Baroness Jan Royall". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 19 October 2024.
  11. ^ "Baroness Royall of Blaisdon - Somerville College Oxford". www.some.ox.ac.uk. 9 June 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  12. ^ "A Royall Progress - Somerville College Oxford". www.some.ox.ac.uk. 20 September 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  13. ^ "Baron Kinnock makes Lords debut". 31 January 2005. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  14. ^ "BBC NEWS | Talk about Newsnight | Reshuffle ruminations". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
  15. ^ Glover, Julian (26 October 2001). "Labour to unveil Ipswich shortlist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  16. ^ White, Michael (2 November 2001). "Male Labour candidate in 'safe' seat". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  17. ^ "Lecturer picked to fight election". 9 January 2002. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  18. ^ a b "Euro appointment under fire". BBC. 16 May 2003.
  19. ^ "No. 57341". The London Gazette. 30 June 2004. p. 8139.
  20. ^ "Peerages: Letters Patent". peerages.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  21. ^ "As it happened: Brown reshuffle". 5 October 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  22. ^ "Public Whip".
  23. ^ "Hansard". Hansard. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ^ Bowcott, Owen; correspondent, Owen Bowcott Legal affairs (6 January 2017). "Maximum sentence for stalking to rise to 10 years". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 November 2024. {{cite news}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
  25. ^ "Opinion: Protecting Women Means Seriously Tracking Stalkers And Abusers". HuffPost UK. 12 March 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  26. ^ "Big Issue: Baroness Jan Royall of Blaisdon on the badger cull". This is Gloucestershire.
  27. ^ "Election results for Forest of Dean: Newent, 2 May 2013". glostext.gloucestershire.gov.uk. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  28. ^ "Baroness Royall to step down as Labour leader in the Lords". Labourlist.
  29. ^ "Shami Chakrabarti Is yet to Comment on Release of Royall Report into Labour Antisemitism". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  30. ^ "Anti-Semitism inquiry leader Shami Chakrabarti joins Labour". BBC News. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  31. ^ "Labour's Lady Royall: No life bans over anti-Semitism". BBC News. 17 May 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  32. ^ Sherwood, Harriet (17 May 2016). "Antisemitism should not mean automatic life ban, Labour report says". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  33. ^ Rusbridger, Alan. "'I don't think that profile equates with the ability to fulfil the role' Jan Royall on running for Oxford chancellor". www.prospectmagazine.co.uk. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  34. ^ "Lords split over free speech in Higher Education Bill". University World News. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  35. ^ "Hansard". Hansard. 28 June 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  36. ^ Attenborough, Frederick (14 October 2024). "Oxford candidate runs into row over freedom of speech". The Free Speech Union. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
  37. ^ a b Announcement of new Principal at Somerville College, Somerville College, 9 Feb 2017.
  38. ^ "THE PRINCIPAL AND FELLOWS OF SOMERVILLE COLLEGE - Charity 1139440". prd-ds-register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  39. ^ "Octopus 'off menu' at Oxford University's Somerville College". BBC News. 18 January 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  40. ^ Turner, Camilla (17 January 2019). "Oxford college bans octopus from menu in bid to make disadvantaged students feel more 'comfortable'". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
  41. ^ Coren, Giles (22 January 2019). "Uni is a safe space for alphabetti spaghetti". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  42. ^ Turner, Camilla (8 February 2019). "Students at Oxford college which cut octopus from menu now vote to ban Halal and Kosher meat". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 October 2024.
  43. ^ Webster, Eve (26 January 2018). "Somerville u-turns on gender neutral toilets". Cherwell. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
  44. ^ Daniel, Charles (13 February 2021). "Letter to Baroness Royall regarding Unconscious Bias Training at Somerville College". The Free Speech Union. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  45. ^ "Reflections on becoming Chair of the Conference of Colleges".
  46. ^ "About the Conference of Colleges".
  47. ^ "Somerville recognised as University College of Sanctuary - Somerville College Oxford". www.some.ox.ac.uk. 1 March 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  48. ^ Hurst, Ruby (23 May 2024). "Somerville College responds to police launching drones". The Oxford Student. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  49. ^ UK, CAAS. "Twitter/X". Twitter.
  50. ^ "The Somerville Magazine 2024 by Somerville College - Issuu". issuu.com. 22 August 2024. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  51. ^ "Somerville College |". Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  52. ^ "Royall of Blaisdon, Baroness, (Janet Anne Royall) (born 20 Aug. 1955)". Who's Who. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U44490.
[edit]
Political offices
Preceded by Chief Whip in the House of Lords
2007–2008 		Succeeded by
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms
2007–2008
Preceded by Lord President of the Council
2008–2009 		Succeeded by
Leader of the House of Lords
2008–2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
2009–2010
Preceded by Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
2010–2015 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Labour Party in the House of Lords
2008–2015 		Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by Principal of Somerville College, Oxford
2017– 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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