Susan Kramer
Encyclopedia
Susan Veronica Kramer, Baroness Kramer (born 22 July 1950) is a British
Liberal Democrat politician. She was Member of Parliament
(MP) for Richmond Park
from 2005 to 2010, having been an unsuccessful candidate in the London mayoral election in 2000
.
, London
, in 1950. She was educated at the independent St Paul's Girls' School
, followed by St Hilda's College
at the University of Oxford
, where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and was President of the Oxford Union
in 1971. She then did an MBA
at the University of Illinois in the United States
.
in Chicago
. She and her husband then set up International Capital Partners, a firm which advises on infrastructure projects, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe. She remains a director of the firm.
at the European Parliament elections, though she was not elected. The following year, she stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the election
for Mayor of London
against Ken Livingstone
, and other candidates. She finished fourth with 11.9% of the vote. In March 2003, she again sought the party's nomination for Mayor of London, but was beaten in a three-way race for the candidacy by Simon Hughes
.
for the constituency of Richmond Park in South West London, following the decision of the sitting Liberal Democrat MP, Jenny Tonge
, to stand down at the next election. Kramer was then elected as the MP for the constituency at the May 2005 general election
.
Kramer was appointed Liberal Democrat Shadow International Development Secretary by the new party leader, Sir Menzies Campbell
, in March 2006. She succeeded Ed Davey
as Shadow Trade & Industry Secretary nine months later. In 2007 she became the party's Shadow Transport Secretary. When Nick Clegg was appointed as Liberal Democrat Leader, Kramer received a demotion to Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office. She later regained the Transport post in a subsequent reshuffle. In January 2009, she resigned from the party's front bench to defend her seat from a renewed Conservative campaign to regain Richmond. Kramer was one of the contributors to the Orange Book (2004).
Kramer was involved in a breach of electoral rules when her son made four monthly donations of £332 between December 2008 and March 2009 to her campaign while not on the electoral register. A Liberal Democrat spokeswoman said to the press Jonathan Kramer was unaware his name had fallen off the register, and that the money was paid back once the error was pointed out.
Kramer rarely rebelled against Liberal Democrat policy in terms of voting. She has voted against the introduction of national ID cards, against the renewal of the Trident defence system, and for an elected House of Lords
.
Kramer took a keen interest in London transport, in particular regarding high-speed rail and the Thameslink Programme
. Despite her initial enthusiasm about the opening of High Speed 1, she became more mixed on the issue, citing in 2007 during a debate with a number of Labour MPs that "significant numbers of business customers in south-west London have been happy to make the easy journey by train to Waterloo, but that they simply jump in a cab to go to Gatwick or Heathrow. It is unfortunate, but their passenger business will largely be lost, as the journey to St. Pancras will be more than an hour longer than the current journey to Waterloo." Kramer's district of Richmond Park is situated in an area served by South West Trains
which provides service into Waterloo station
rather than the newly opened St Pancras International station
which replaced the former as the London terminus for Eurostar; she later argued for possible use of both stations.
In addition, she echoed her discontent with the management of the Thameslink Programme, originally meant to improve cross-Thames rail travel, claiming that it has failed to meet set targets and that its cash flow has been poorly managed. She consistently supported Crossrail
and was a member of the Crossrail Bill Committee. Kramer has also voiced her opposition to the expansion of Heathrow Airport and submitted an early day motion that gained support from 54 MPs, 38 from her own party and 16 from the Labour Party
. As early as her maiden speech, Kramer made opposition to the airport's expansion one of her key goals as a Member of Parliament.
On civil rights, Kramer voted for amendments to the Equality Act 2006
that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation
and gender reassignment. Along with all other Liberal Democrat MPs, she voted to allow Gurkhas permanent settlement rights in the United Kingdom, overriding previous legislation which denied such rights.
. With a notional majority of 3,649 (7.2%), it was one of the most marginal seats in London, with Goldsmith emerging victorious by 4,091 votes.
In November 2010, Kramer lost the election to become President of the Liberal Democrats to Tim Farron
by 47% of votes to Farron's 53%.
Later in the month, it was announced that she will be made a peer and become Baroness Kramer.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Liberal Democrat politician. She was Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Richmond Park
Richmond Park (UK Parliament constituency)
Richmond Park is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History and character:...
from 2005 to 2010, having been an unsuccessful candidate in the London mayoral election in 2000
London mayoral election, 2000
The first election to the office of Mayor of London took place on 4 May 2000.-Results:¹Under the Supplementary Vote system, if no candidate receives 50% of 1st choice votes, 2nd choice votes are added to the result for the top two 1st choice candidates...
.
Early life and Education
Kramer was born in HolbornHolborn
Holborn is an area of Central London. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running as High Holborn from St Giles's High Street to Gray's Inn Road and then on to Holborn Viaduct...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, in 1950. She was educated at the independent St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School is a senior independent school, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England.-History:In 1904 a new day school for girls was established by the trustees of the Dean Colet Foundation , which had run St Paul's School for boys since the sixteenth century...
, followed by St Hilda's College
St Hilda's College, Oxford
St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.The college was founded in 1893 as a hall for women, and remained an all-women's college until 2006....
at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and was President of the Oxford Union
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, Britain, whose membership is drawn primarily but not exclusively from the University of Oxford...
in 1971. She then did an MBA
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
at the University of Illinois in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Business career
Kramer began her career in finance, and rose to become a Vice-President of CitibankCitibank
Citibank, a major international bank, is the consumer banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. She and her husband then set up International Capital Partners, a firm which advises on infrastructure projects, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe. She remains a director of the firm.
Early candidacies
In 1999, Kramer was on the Liberal Democrat party list for the London constituencyLondon (European Parliament constituency)
London is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 8 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.- Boundaries :The constituency corresponds to Greater London, in the south east of the United Kingdom....
at the European Parliament elections, though she was not elected. The following year, she stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the election
London mayoral election, 2000
The first election to the office of Mayor of London took place on 4 May 2000.-Results:¹Under the Supplementary Vote system, if no candidate receives 50% of 1st choice votes, 2nd choice votes are added to the result for the top two 1st choice candidates...
for Mayor of London
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
against Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
, and other candidates. She finished fourth with 11.9% of the vote. In March 2003, she again sought the party's nomination for Mayor of London, but was beaten in a three-way race for the candidacy by Simon Hughes
Simon Hughes
Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British politician and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. He is Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark. Until 2008 he was President of the Liberal Democrats...
.
Member of Parliament
In September 2003, Kramer was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidateProspective parliamentary candidate
Prospective parliamentary candidate is a term used in British politics to refer to candidates selected by political parties to fight individual constituencies in advance of a general election. This terminology was motivated by the strict limits on the amount of expenses incurred by an actual...
for the constituency of Richmond Park in South West London, following the decision of the sitting Liberal Democrat MP, Jenny Tonge
Jenny Tonge
Jennifer Louise Tonge, Baroness Tonge is a politician in the United Kingdom. She was Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Richmond Park in London from 1997 to 2005.-Early life:...
, to stand down at the next election. Kramer was then elected as the MP for the constituency at the May 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
.
Kramer was appointed Liberal Democrat Shadow International Development Secretary by the new party leader, Sir Menzies Campbell
Menzies Campbell
Sir Walter Menzies "Ming" Campbell, CBE, QC, MP is a British Liberal Democrat politician and advocate, and a retired sprinter. He is the Member of Parliament for North East Fife, and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.Campbell held the British record...
, in March 2006. She succeeded Ed Davey
Edward Davey
Edward Jonathan "Ed" Davey is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Kingston and Surbiton since 1997, and in May 2010 was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
as Shadow Trade & Industry Secretary nine months later. In 2007 she became the party's Shadow Transport Secretary. When Nick Clegg was appointed as Liberal Democrat Leader, Kramer received a demotion to Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office. She later regained the Transport post in a subsequent reshuffle. In January 2009, she resigned from the party's front bench to defend her seat from a renewed Conservative campaign to regain Richmond. Kramer was one of the contributors to the Orange Book (2004).
Kramer was involved in a breach of electoral rules when her son made four monthly donations of £332 between December 2008 and March 2009 to her campaign while not on the electoral register. A Liberal Democrat spokeswoman said to the press Jonathan Kramer was unaware his name had fallen off the register, and that the money was paid back once the error was pointed out.
Voting record and positions
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
.
Kramer took a keen interest in London transport, in particular regarding high-speed rail and the Thameslink Programme
Thameslink Programme
The Thameslink Programme, originally Thameslink 2000, is a £6 billion project in south-east England to upgrade and expand the Thameslink rail network to provide new and longer trains between a wider range of stations to the north and to the south of London without requiring passengers to change...
. Despite her initial enthusiasm about the opening of High Speed 1, she became more mixed on the issue, citing in 2007 during a debate with a number of Labour MPs that "significant numbers of business customers in south-west London have been happy to make the easy journey by train to Waterloo, but that they simply jump in a cab to go to Gatwick or Heathrow. It is unfortunate, but their passenger business will largely be lost, as the journey to St. Pancras will be more than an hour longer than the current journey to Waterloo." Kramer's district of Richmond Park is situated in an area served by South West Trains
South West Trains
South West Trains is a British train operating company providing, under franchise, passenger rail services, mostly out of Waterloo station, to the southwest of London in the suburbs and in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Berkshire, and Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight...
which provides service into Waterloo station
Waterloo station
Waterloo station, also known as London Waterloo, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. The station is owned and operated by Network Rail and is close to the South Bank of the River Thames, and in Travelcard Zone 1....
rather than the newly opened St Pancras International station
St Pancras railway station
St Pancras railway station, also known as London St Pancras and since 2007 as St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus celebrated for its Victorian architecture. The Grade I listed building stands on Euston Road in St Pancras, London Borough of Camden, between the...
which replaced the former as the London terminus for Eurostar; she later argued for possible use of both stations.
In addition, she echoed her discontent with the management of the Thameslink Programme, originally meant to improve cross-Thames rail travel, claiming that it has failed to meet set targets and that its cash flow has been poorly managed. She consistently supported Crossrail
Crossrail
Crossrail is a project to build a major new railway link under central London. The name refers to the first of two routes which are the responsibility of Crossrail Ltd. It is based on an entirely new east-west tunnel with a central section from to Liverpool Street station...
and was a member of the Crossrail Bill Committee. Kramer has also voiced her opposition to the expansion of Heathrow Airport and submitted an early day motion that gained support from 54 MPs, 38 from her own party and 16 from the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. As early as her maiden speech, Kramer made opposition to the airport's expansion one of her key goals as a Member of Parliament.
On civil rights, Kramer voted for amendments to the Equality Act 2006
Equality Act 2006
The Equality Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom covering the United Kingdom. The 2006 Act is a precursor to the Equality Act 2010, which combines all of the equality enactments within Great Britain and provide comparable protections across all equality strands...
that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation
Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations
The Equality Act Regulations are secondary legislation in the United Kingdom, outlawing discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities, services, education and public functions on the grounds of sexual orientation....
and gender reassignment. Along with all other Liberal Democrat MPs, she voted to allow Gurkhas permanent settlement rights in the United Kingdom, overriding previous legislation which denied such rights.
Local issues
In early January 2009, Kramer stepped down from the Liberal Democrat Front Bench to focus on local issues impacting her constituency. The principal cause stated was to coordinate opposition to further development of Heathrow Airport, whose incoming aircraft routinely overfly the constituency on their landing approach to the airport.2010 general election
In 2010, Kramer faced a challenge from Conservative Zac GoldsmithZac Goldsmith
Frank Zacharias Robin "Zac" Goldsmith, MP is an English environmental journalist, entrepreneur and Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Richmond Park since winning the seat at the 2010 general election.Goldsmith is the middle child of the late financier Sir...
. With a notional majority of 3,649 (7.2%), it was one of the most marginal seats in London, with Goldsmith emerging victorious by 4,091 votes.
In November 2010, Kramer lost the election to become President of the Liberal Democrats to Tim Farron
Tim Farron
Timothy James Farron is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He is currently Member of Parliament for the constituency of Westmorland and Lonsdale...
by 47% of votes to Farron's 53%.
Later in the month, it was announced that she will be made a peer and become Baroness Kramer.
External links
- Baroness Susan Kramer profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
- Richmond Liberal Democrats
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Susan Kramer MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Baroness Susan Kramer
- The Public Whip - Susan Kramer voting record
- BBC News - Susan Kramer profile 17 October 2007
- Open Directory Project - Susan Kramer directory category