Janet Young, Baroness Young
|
|
Janet Young, Baroness Young (October 23, 1926-September 6 2002), was a British Conservative politician. She served as the first ever female Leader of the House of Lords from 1981 to 1983, first as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and from 1982 as Lord Privy Seal.
She became a councillor for Oxford city council in 1957 and was leader by 1967. Not long after she was made a peer on the advice of Edward Heath, as Baroness Young, of Farnworth in the County Palatine of Lancaster. As the Lady Young she was appointed Leader of the House of Lords, and sat on the boards of large corporations like NatWest and Marks and Spencer.
In later life she was mainly known for her opposition to the Labour government's efforts to ease restrictions on homosexuals, and consequently was much-disliked by supporters of these policies. She worked to try to stop legislation going through the House of Lords to equalise the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual sexual activity at 16 and for the repeal of Section 28.
| Preceded by: Francis Pym | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1981–1982 | Succeeded by: Cecil Parkinson |
| Preceded by: Humphrey Atkins | Lord Privy Seal 1982–1983 | Succeeded by: John Biffen Template:End boxTemplate:UK-politician-stub Template:Peer-stub |