Sylvia Heal

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Sylvia Lloyd Heal JP (born July 20, 1942) is a British politician. She is Labour Member of Parliament for Halesowen and Rowley Regis and is the First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

Born as Sylvia Lloyd Fox in north Wales, the daughter of a Shotton steelworker, she was educated at the Elfed Secondary School in Buckley, the Coleg Harlech, and the University of Wales, Swansea where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in economics in 1968. She worked as a medical records clerk at the Chester Royal Infirmary for six years from 1957. In 1968 she was appointed as a social worker with the Department of Employment for two years. For ten years from 1980 she worked as a social worker within a drug rehabilitation centre. During her parliamentary interregnum she worked as a young careers officer with the National Carers Association.

She was a member of the Young Socialists National Council for four years from 1960, and was appointed as a Justice of the Peace in 1973. She was first elected to the House of Commons at the Mid Staffordshire by-election on 22 March 1990, which followed the suicide of the sitting Conservative MP John Heddle. She won the seat with a majority of 9,449 on a massive 21% swing from Conservative to Labour in a contest that was fought largely on the single issue of the Poll Tax. She lost the Mid Staffordshire seat two years later at the 1992 general election when she was ousted by the Conservative Michael Fabricant by a majority of 6,236. She was re-elected to Parliament at the 1997 general election for the new West Midlands seat of Halesowen and Rowley Regis with a majority of 10,337 and has remained the MP there since.

In her first spell in Parliament she served for two years as a member of the education select committee. She was also promoted to the front bench by Neil Kinnock in 1991 as a spokeswoman for health and women. Following her re-election in 1997 she was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence George Robertson and from 1999 his successor Geoff Hoon. She was appointed as the Deputy Speaker by the new Speaker Michael Martin in 2000, in which capacity she remains.

She has been married to Keith Heal since 1965 and they have a son and a daughter. She is the sister of Ann Keen, and sister in law to Alan Keen, both fellow MPs. She lives in Egham, Surrey, and she takes a keen interest in South Africa and enjoys gardening.

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