Maureen Morfydd Colquhoun is a British

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...

 economist and 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...

 politician.

Education

She attended the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

 and later worked as a literary research assistant.

Political career

She served as a councillor in West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

 from 1971-74 until she was elected 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 Northampton North

Northampton North (UK Parliament constituency)

Northampton North 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. It was created before the election of February 1974 when the old constituency of Northampton...

 in 1974. She had previously contested Tonbridge

Tonbridge (UK Parliament constituency)

Tonbridge was a parliamentary constituency in Kent, centred on the town of Tonbridge. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

 in the 1970 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1970

The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...

.

At the 1979 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1979

The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...

, she lost her seat to the Conservative Antony Marlow

Antony Marlow

Antony Rivers Marlow , known as Tony Marlow, is a British Conservative former Member of Parliament .Born in Greenwich, London, Marlow gained Northampton North in the 1979 election, defeating Labour MP Maureen Colquhoun....

 on an 8% swing.

Following her defeat she returned to the House of Commons where she worked as an assistant to Labour MPs. She was elected to Hackney London Borough Council

Hackney London Borough Council

Hackney London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Hackney in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council is unusual in the United Kingdom local government system in that its executive function...

 in 1982-1990.

Personal life

Colquhoun was Britain's first openly lesbian MP. She punched a car park attendant in a row about a parking ticket in December 1974, and in 1977, after 'years of notoriety' in the house, she was deselected as a parliamentary candidate by her party. She was married with three children, and divorced in 1980 after leaving Parliament.

She published an autobiography in 1980

Colquhoun moved to the Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

 where she was a member of the Lake District National Park

Lake District National Park

The Lake District National Park is located in the north-west of England and is the largest of the English National Parks and the second largest in the United Kingdom. It is in the central and most-visited part of the Lake District....

Authority between 1998 and 2006.