Editing Shirley Williams (section)

== Parliamentary career ==
After unsuccessfully contesting the [[United Kingdom constituencies|constituency]] of [[Harwich (UK Parliament constituency)|Harwich]] at the [[1954 Harwich by-election|1954 by-election]] and [[1955 United Kingdom general election|the general election the following year]], as well as the constituency of [[Southampton Test]] at the [[1959 United Kingdom general election|1959 general election]], Williams was elected in the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]] as Labour MP for the constituency of [[Hitchin (UK Parliament constituency)|Hitchin]] in Hertfordshire. She retained the seat, renamed [[Hertford and Stevenage]] after boundary changes in 1974, until 1979.<ref name="Guardian Obituary" /> As Minister for Education and Science (August 1967 – October 1969), Williams launched the first ''Women in Engineering Year'' in 1969.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_10.html|title=The Woman Engineer Vol 10|website=www2.theiet.org|access-date=7 March 2020}}</ref>

Her colleague David Owen recalled: "You'd watch her work a room at a local Labour event and she'd never start by smarming up to a regional leader or a councillor. She'd settle down next to somebody whom she'd have no political reason to talk to – a solid party worker – and you'd watch this person's face light up. This was always done spontaneously, without any ulterior motives. She just liked people and liked them to like her."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/12/obituaries-2021-shirley-williams-remembered-by-david-owen?CMP=twt_gu|title = Those we lost in 2021: Shirley Williams remembered by David Owen|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 12 December 2021}}</ref>

Between 1971 and 1973, she served as Shadow [[Home Secretary]]. In 1974, she became [[Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection]] in [[Harold Wilson]]'s cabinet. When Wilson announced his resignation in 1976 and was succeeded by [[James Callaghan]], she became [[Secretary of State for Education]] and [[Paymaster General]], holding both cabinet positions at the same time. Williams [[1976 Labour Party deputy leadership election|stood for the Labour deputy leadership]] in October of that year but lost to [[Michael Foot]].<ref name="Guardian Obituary" />

=== Comprehensive schools ===
While serving as education secretary between 1976 and 1979, Williams pursued the policy introduced by [[Anthony Crosland]] in 1965 to introduce the [[Comprehensive school (England and Wales)|comprehensive school]] system in place of [[Grammar schools debate|grammar schools]].<ref name="bbc">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-10258493|title=Shirley Williams: Pioneer who tried to reshape politics|work=BBC News|date=12 April 2021}}</ref> Previously, in 1972, as her daughter Rebecca approached secondary school age, Williams had moved into the catchment area of the [[voluntary aided school]] [[Godolphin and Latymer School]] allowing her daughter to gain a place there.<ref>Shirley Williams ''Climbing The Bookshelves: Autobiography of Shirley Williams'', Virago, 2009, p.&nbsp;206.</ref> However, when [[Godolphin and Latymer School]] subsequently voted to go independent in 1977, Rebecca chose to leave that school and instead went to [[Camden School for Girls]] because it had chosen to go comprehensive.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Agar|first=Stephen|date=24 April 2021|title=Rod's Wrong|journal=The Spectator|pages=31}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=April 2021}}

=== Europeanism ===
Always a passionately committed supporter of European integration,<ref name="HoL 26Jan2016">[https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldhansrd/text/160128-0002.htm#16012842000913 ''Hansard''], House of Lords, 28 January 2016, c1470-71.</ref><ref name="Guardian Kettle">{{cite news |last1=Kettle |first1=Martin|author-link = Martin Kettle |title=Britain's pro-Europeans need to find a Shirley Williams |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/17/pro-eu-campaign-shirley-williams-brexit |access-date=13 April 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=17 December 2015}}</ref> Williams was one of 68 Labour MPs to defy a [[three-line whip]] in the 28 October 1971 Commons vote on membership of the [[European Communities]].<ref name="Guardian Obituary" /><ref>{{cite journal|last=Ludlow|first=N. Piers|title=Safeguarding British identity or betraying it?: the role of British 'tradition' in the parliamentary great debate on EC membership, October 1971|journal=[[Journal of Common Market Studies]]|publisher=John Wiley & Sons on behalf of UACES|date=19 November 2014|volume=53|issue=1|pages=18–34|issn=0021-9886|doi=10.1111/jcms.12202|s2cid=145092199|url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/57686/1/Ludlow_Safeguarding%20British%20tradition.pdf}}</ref><ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1971/oct/28/european-communities ''Hansard''], European Communities, HC Deb 28 October 1971 vol 823 cc2076-217.</ref> Four years later, she was one of the leaders of the Britain in Europe campaign during the [[1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum|1975 European Communities membership referendum]].<ref name="Guardian Kettle" /> Labour's anti-Europeanism during the Michael Foot years was one of the factors that drove her to abandon the party in 1981.<ref name="Guardian Kettle" />

In her 2016 valedictory speech to the [[House of Lords]] before that year's [[2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|second membership referendum]], she described the UK's [[European Union]] (EU) membership as "the most central political question that this country has to answer" and said it was the reason for her retirement. In closing, she called on her colleagues to "think very hard before allowing the United Kingdom to withdraw from ... its major duty to the world—the one it will encounter, and then deliver, through the European Union".<ref name="HoL 26Jan2016" /><ref name="Valedictory video">{{cite news |title=Shirley Williams makes her final speech to House of Lords (video) |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-35427305 |access-date=13 April 2021 |agency=BBC News |date=28 January 2016}}</ref>

=== Social issues ===
A lifelong [[Roman Catholic]], Williams was a longstanding opponent of the legalisation of abortion.<ref name="TelObit" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Moss |first=Stephen |date=2009-10-18 |title=Shirley Williams: 'I didn't think I was good enough to be leader' |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/oct/19/shirley-williams-interview |access-date=2023-06-03 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> She was one of the two female MPs to vote against the [[Abortion Act 1967]], which legalised abortion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Flello |first=Rob |date=2017-10-27 |title=Labour's new intolerance of the pro-life cause |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-s-new-intolerance-of-the-pro-life-cause/ |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=The Spectator |language=en-US}}</ref> However, [[Lord Harries of Pentregarth]] reported that Williams "refused to sign up for the [[Society for the Protection of Unborn Children]] (SPUC), and generally kept a low profile on the issue of abortion."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shirley Williams R.I.P., Christian and Catholic |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/23-april/comment/opinion/shirley-williams-rip-christian-and-catholic |access-date=2023-06-03 |website=www.churchtimes.co.uk}}</ref>

Thursday, 21 June, 2007 She appeared on Question Time (TV programme) to discuss [[Salman Rushdie]] being honoured. She was strongly opposed to the action'''.'''<ref>{{Cite news |date=2007-06-27 |title=What you've said |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/6228278.stm |access-date=2024-11-05 |language=en-GB}}</ref>