The Baroness Turner of Camden | |
Term Start: | 29 May 1985 |
Term End: | 13 June 2017 |
Birth Name: | Muriel Winifred Price |
Birth Date: | 1927 9, df=y |
Muriel Winifred Turner, Baroness Turner of Camden (née Price; 18 September 1927 – 26 February 2018) was a British Labour politician and trade union leader.
Between 1970 and 1987 Turner was Assistant General Secretary of ASTMS (later Manufacturing, Science and Finance, Amicus and now Unite the Union).[1] [2] From 1981 to 1987 she was a member of the TUC General Council.[1]
She was created a Life Peer on 29 May 1985 taking the title Baroness Turner of Camden, of Camden in Greater London. She had a particular interest in social welfare and pensions issues,[1] and from 1987 until October 1996 was Front Bench Spokesperson on Employment for the Labour Opposition.[2] She was Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords between 2002 and 2008.[1]
She was a member of the Equal Opportunities Commission 1982–88; the Occupational Pensions Board 1977–93; Council Member, Occupational Pensions Advisory Service, 1989–2007; and chair, Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman Council 1994–97. She was a ranking member of British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom.[3]
Her membership in the House ended on 13 June 2017.[4] She died eight months later, aged 90.[5]
In 1955, Muriel Price married Reginald Thomas Frederick Turner, MC, DFC.[6] They did not have any children together but the marriage brought two step children.[7] He predeceased her, dying in 1995.
She was also vice-president of Humanists UK[8] and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.[9] On 15 September 2010, Turner, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[10]