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Patricia Hope Hewitt (born 2 December 1948) is a Labour politician, who served in the Cabinet until 2007, most recently as Secretary of State for Health. Hewitt's political career began in the 1970s as a high-profile left-winger and supporter of Tony Benn, even being classified by MI5 as an alleged communist sympathiser. After nine years as General Secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties, she became press secretary to Neil Kinnock, whom she assisted in the modernisation of the Labour Party. In 1997, she became the first female MP for Leicester West, a safe Labour seat, which she represented for thirteen years. In 2001, she joined Blair's cabinet as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, before becoming Health Secretary in 2005. During her tenure, the ban on smoking in public places became legally enforceable. Hewitt has sparked many controversies, notably her selection of a female job-applicant over a stronger male candidate, and her theory that fathers may not be a useful influence in the upbringing of children. In March 2010, Hewitt was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party over the question of political lobbying irregularities, alleged by the Channel 4 ''Dispatches'' programme. == Early life == Born in Canberra, Australia, she is the daughter of Sir Lenox Hewitt (b. 1917), a leading civil servant (Secretary of the Australian Prime Minister's Department, and later chairman of Qantas), and Lady (Hope) Hewitt (1915–2011). She was educated at Canberra Girls' Grammar School (formerly Canberra Church of England Girls' Grammar School).〔''Who's Who 1987''〕 She studied for her undergraduate degree in English Literature at Cambridge where she received a BA/MA. She later became a visiting fellow at Nuffield College Oxford and was awarded an honorary MA. She speaks French and is a keen gardener. She married David Julian Gibson-Watt, second son of David Gibson Watt, Conservative MP for Hereford, and Diana Hambro, in 1970. They were divorced in 1978. By this time she had moved to the left, becoming a committed feminist. MI5 classified her a "Communist sympathiser" in the 1970s because of her relationship with William (Bill) Jack Birtles, a lawyer.〔Oliver Duff ("Hewitt's husband: keep your drug addicts off my doorstep", ) ''The Independent'', 20 February 2007〕 In 1981, she married Birtles in Camden; they have a daughter (born September 1986) and a son (born February 1988). In 1971, she became Age Concern's Press and Public Relations Officer, before joining the UK's National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty) initially as a women's rights officer in 1973, and for nine years from 1974 as the general secretary. In 1990 the Council of Europe ruled MI5 surveillance of both Hewitt and the NCCL legal officer, Harriet Harman had breached the European Convention of Human Rights.〔("Secret State: Timeline" ), BBC News, 17 October 2002〕 She was a member of the advisory panel of the ''New Statesman'' magazine for ten years from 1980, and is a former school governor at the Kentish Town Primary School. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Patricia Hewitt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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