Janet Whitaker, Baroness Whitaker

Who is Janet Whitaker, Baroness Whitaker?

Janet Alison Whitaker, Baroness Whitaker is a British politician with the Labour Party.

Born Janet Alison Stewart, she is the daughter of Alan Harrison Stewart and Ella Stewart. She was educated at Nottingham High School for Girls, Girton College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom and at Bryn Mawr College and Harvard University in the United States. In 1964 she married Benjamin Whitaker a barrister, author and human rights activist, who served a single term as Labour Party MP for Hampstead from 1966-70.

Baroness Whitaker began her career in publishing. She was a Commissioning Editor with Andre Deutsch LTD, a small but influential English publishing house, from 1961 until 1968. From 1974-96 she was with the Employment Department Group. She was then employed by the Commonwealth Secretariat as a consultant for the Commission for Racial Equality. She was then with Independent Television Commission starting in 1999, serving as the Deputy Chair from 2001 to 2003. Overlapping that time, she was a professional consultant to the Committee of Reference for Friends Provident insurance company from 1999-08.