Anne Kerr (politician)

Anne Patricia Kerr (24 March 1925–29 July 1973) was a British Labour Party politician who was elected for two successive terms as a Member of Parliament. Before entering politics she was an actress and television interviewer.

She won the Rochester and Chatham seat at the 1964 general election, defeating the sitting Conservative MP Julian Critchley with a majority of 1,013 votes. [ [http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge64/i17.htm General election results 1964, Rochester & Chatham] ]

She defeated Critchley again at the 1966 general election, with an increased majority, [ [http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge66/i17.htm General election results 1966, Rochester & Chatham] ] but lost by over 5,000 votes at the 1970 election to the Conservative Peggy Fenner. [ [http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge70/i17.htm General election results 1970, Rochester & Chatham] ]

Always passionately interested in human rights issues, she was attending the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago when she was detained and manhandled by police. She was also a staunch opponent of Britain's entry into Europe, and after her defeat in 1970 she helped to found Women Against the Common Market.

She died at her home at Twickenham of acute alcoholic poisoning. At her inquest in August 1973, her husband Russell Kerr, also a Labour Member of Parliament, said that she had never really recovered from being beaten by police at Chicago five years earlier.

References

*Rayment