| The Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton | |
| Birth Name: | Josephine Cayless |
| Birth Date: | 29 June 1940 |
| Birth Place: | Loughborough, England |
| Death Place: | London, England |
| Office: | Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal |
| Term Start: | 29 September 1994 |
| Term End: | 30 March 2018 |
| Party: | Labour |
| Children: | 3 |
Josephine Farrington, Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (née Cayless; 29 June 1940 – 30 March 2018)[1] was a British Labour Party politician, active in local government internationally before her elevation to the Lords in 1994.
Josephine Cayless was born in Loughborough in 1940.[2] She worked as a teacher, even though she had left school at age sixteen.[2]
She was a Preston Borough Councillor from 1973 to 1976.[2] In 1977, she was elected to Lancashire County Council and held several senior positions, including chair of the Education Committee.[3] From 1981 to 1994 she was a Member of the Council of Europe Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities and of its successor the Congress of the Council of Europe.[3] She acted as an international observer at local elections in Poland, Ukraine and Albania.[3] She was also a Member of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union and was Chairman of Education and Training in 1994.[3]
Farrington was the Labour candidate at the 1983 general election for the constituency of West Lancashire and stood for the party again at the 1991 Ribble Valley by-election.[4] On 29 September 1994, she was created a life peer as Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton, of Fulwood in the County of Lancashire.[3] She was a government spokesperson in the Lords for several issues between 1997 and 2010.[3]
Cayless married Michael Farrington in 1960; the couple had three sons.[2] She died from lung cancer at her residence in Dolphin Square, London, on 30 March 2018, at the age of 77.[2]