Louise Baldock
Louise Baldock (born 31 August 1965) is a British Labour Party And Co-operative Party politician. In 2013 she was nominated as the Labour Party candidate for the Stockton South parliamentary constituency from an all-women shortlist. Baldock will face incumbent Conservative MP James Wharton at the 2015 parliamentary election, who gained the seat from Labour in 2010 with a majority of 332.
Early life
Louise was born in the West Midlands but moved to Yarm in 1978 with her family. She attended Conyers School in Yarm, and Teesside Polytechnic in Middlesbrough, graduating with a BA in Humanities.
Career outside politics
After graduation, Baldock worked for Crossley Ferguson Builders Merchants in Stockton on Tees before working for five years in a variety of roles at Stevenson of Oxbridge Ltd in Stockton on Tees and Coulby Newham. She worked in the marketing team at Wilson Henry LLP from 2008 – 2012 before setting up her own marketing company. Baldock was the membership secretary for East Liverpool Business Forum until August 2013 which aims to promote small businesses, home workers and the self-employed.
Political career
Early political career
Baldock became actively involved in politics in 1992 supporting Labour’s candidate John Scott in Stockton South. She later became a Labour Party organiser in Colne Valley, Calder Valley and Batley & Spen. Louise also became the Deputy Regional Director in the North West, and ran the campaign in Sheffield to retake the local council. After the 2001 general election Louise worked for three Members of Parliament supporting them in their constituency offices.
Work as a Councillor
In 2004 Louise moved to Liverpool, becoming a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee. She became a Liverpool City Councillor in 2006 where she was Chair of Finance and Resources until her term ended in May 2014. In April 2009, Louise resigned from her position as ethics spokeswoman for the Labour Group on Liverpool City Council after the Standards Board for England wrote a report in response to a complaint from a Liberal councillor which was then leaked to the Liverpool Echo. She had written an article on her blog in 2007 where she described local Liberals and Liberal Democrats as "opportunistic bastards." The Standards Board said it would not be taking any further action or investigating the complaint. However, Louise subsequently announced her resignation from the position as a result of the publicity and also her seat on the local standards committee saying that she did not want to damage the good work the council had achieved in promoting ethical standards.
Labour Against The Bedroom Tax
Louise was Vice Chair of Venture Housing Association until September 2013. Identifying changes to housing benefit contained within the Welfare Reform Act 2012 as the "defining issue of the last 20 years", she set up 'Labour Against the Bedroom Tax'. Although intended to raise awareness of the impact of welfare reform, the grassroots campaign also seeks to pressurise the Labour Party to make a firm commitment to restore the subsidy in the event that they win the 2015 General Election.
Louise stepped down as a Councillor for Kensington and Fairfield Ward in May 2014 to contest her home constituency of Stockton South.
Stockton South
On 6 July 2013 Louise was nominated as Labour and Co-operative parliamentary candidate for her home constituency of Stockton South, currently held by Conservative MP James Wharton. In August 2013, Louise expressed her discontent with negative perceptions of Stockton-on-Tees in an article for the Guardian's 'Northerner Blog' as part of a bid to keep the town out of the “Crap Towns Returns” book.
Louise has been campaigning to prevent the building of houses on the green wedge surrounding Ingleby Barwick, having submitted formal objections, attended several planning committees to speak for residents and launched a petition online and offline to call for Stockton Borough Council and Ingleby Barwick Town Council to stand firm with the community in opposing this.
She has welcomed Labour’s pledge to reintroduce a 48 hour GP appointment waiting list guarantee after hearing from hundreds of residents who are waiting anything up to four weeks to see their Doctor. This guarantee was scrapped by the Coalition Government within weeks of the 2010 election. She has met with at least one Practice Manager in the area to discuss their action plan to improve the service they offer local people.
As a co-operator, Louise is particularly keen to see the development and wide take-up of credit union membership and has been working with local credit unions across the Tees Valley to share best practice and encourage new borrowers and savers to stay out of the clutches of loan sharks. She has called for the establishment of an Armed Forces Credit Union to emulate the successful Police Credit Union whose Stockton branch she visited in August 2014.
Personal life
Baldock who was married in the 1980s moved to Thornaby-on-Tees and then Stockton-on-Tees. After a period living in West Yorkshire and in Liverpool, she now lives in Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees. In January 1999 Baldock's fiancé Michael Price died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty flue, which has since led Baldock to raise awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide.
Baldock came out as bisexual in 2009 at a march against homophobia in Liverpool, and actively campaigns for LGBT rights. She has compared the drive for [...] equality to the UK smoking ban, suggesting that legislative change can accelerate the evolution of social attitudes. Baldock is supportive of same [...] marriage.
In June 2013, independent production company First Take released footage gathered as part of its Pink Past and Present project including a film of Baldock's experience of coming out.