Edwina Currie

Edwina Currie Jones née Cohen, (born 13 October 1946) is a former British Member of Parliament. She served from 1983 to 1997 as a Conservative Party MP, including three years as Junior Health Minister, before resigning in 1988 because of a controversy over salmonella in eggs.

Currie is the author of six books, including the Diaries (1987-92) (2002), which revealed an affair with former prime minister John Major. She remains an outspoken public figure, with a reputation for being "highly opinionated," and has a successful career as an author and media personality.

Early life

Currie was born in Liverpool to an Orthodox Jewish family, although she states she is Jewish only culturally and genetically - she does not subscribe to what she calls the 'religious mumbo jumbo'.[1] A pupil at Liverpool Institute High School for Girls, she studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Anne's College, Oxford University; subsequently, she took a Master's degree in economic history at the London School of Economics.She is famous for saying MUMAMEEA

Political career

From 1975 to 1986, she served as a Birmingham City Councillor for Northfield. In 1983, she stood for parliament as a member of the Conservative Party, and was elected as the member for South Derbyshire. Frequently outspoken, she was described as "a virtually permanent fixture on the nation's TV screen saying something outrageous about just about anything" and "the most outspoken and sexually interested woman of her political generation."

In 1986, she became a Junior Health Minister, but was forced to resign in 1988 after she issued a warning about salmonella in British eggs. The claim, that "most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella" sparked outrage among farmers and egg producers, and caused egg sales in the country to plummet.

She was, in 1991, the first Conservative MP to appear on the BBC topical panel show Have I Got News For You. Currie subsequently appeared again in a special episode commemorating the release of Margaret Thatcher's memoirs, opposite fellow Liverpudlian Derek Hatton.

In 1992, she declined a request from prime minister John Major to take up the position of Minister of State in the Home Office.

In February 1994, she tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill to equalise the age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual sex at 16. This amendment was defeated by 307 votes to 280, although a subsequent amendment resulted in the reduction of the homosexual age of consent from twenty one to eighteen; equalisation was achieved some years later.

Currie lost her parliamentary seat in the 1997 general election. For five years (1998–2003), she hosted a late-evening talk show on BBC Radio Five Live, Late Night Currie.

Author

Currie is the author of six novels: A Parliamentary Affair (1994), A Woman's Place (1996) She's Leaving Home (1997), The Ambassador (1999), Chasing Men (2000) and This Honourable House (2001). She has also written four works of non-fiction: Life Lines (1989), What Women Want (1990), Three Line Quips (1992) and Diaries 1987–92 (2002).

Affair with John Major

Currie's Diaries (1987-92), published in 2002, caused a sensation, since they revealed a four-year affair with John Major, starting in 1984 and ending in 1988. The affair began when she was on the backbench, and Major was the government whip under Margaret Thatcher. After Major's rise to chief secretary to the Treasury, the relationship ended, but the two remained friends. Currie maintains that she ended the affair when it became dangerous and impractical, due to the presence of bodyguards who would need to be avoided.

Major was reportedly "ashamed" of the affair, and had privately revealed its existence to his wife. However, Currie admitted to being "in love" with him for years afterwards. Weeks after revealing the affair, she publicly criticised Major, accusing him of sexism and racism, and being "one of the less competent prime ministers".

The admission came after years of denials of any affair in office, and after writing several novels with raunchy themes, such as A Parliamentary Affair.

Private life

In 1972, Edwina Cohen married accountant Ray Currie, they had two children and divorced in 1997. On May 24 2001 she married a second time, to retired detective John Jones, whom she had met when he was a guest on her radio programme in 1999.

Media

From the time she lost her seat in 1997, she has maintained a presence in the media. For five years she presented a phone-in programme on BBC Radio Five Live, "Late Night Currie". In 2002 she moved to HTV, presenting the television programme "Currie Night" until 2003. Since then, she has appeared in a string of reality television programmes, such as Wife Swap, in which she and her second husband John swapped places with with John McCririck and his wife, Jenny. She has also appeared in the reality cooking show Hell's Kitchen with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, and Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes, both in 2006. She won Celebrity Mastermind on June 23 2004, specialising in "The Life of Marie Curie".

External links

• Official website
• Extracts from her diaries
• Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics: biography
• BBC News: Major and Currie had four-year affair