Emma Pidding, Baroness Pidding
Emma Samantha Pidding, Baroness Pidding, CBE (born 13 January 1966) is a British Conservative parliamentarian and member of the House of Lords.
Pidding was educated at Brudenell Secondary School for Girls (now Amersham School), and at Dr Challoner's High School, later becoming a bank clerk in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.[1]
A former Chiltern District Councillor and Chairman of the National Conservative Convention, she was created a Life Peer on 8 October 2015, taking the title Baroness Pidding, of Amersham in the County of Buckinghamshire.[2]
Pidding was previously appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for voluntary political service in the 2014 New Year Honours.[3]
In November 2015, Emma Pidding became embroiled in the scandal which led to the Conservative Party closing down its activist bussing organization, Road Trip and to dismiss its entire executive of the Conservative Future Youth Wing.[4][5] Conservative Party member, activist and unsuccessful 2010 General Election candidate Mark Clarke, at the centre of the storm, had his membership cancelled "for life" on 18 November 2015 amid allegations of sex assaults, drugs, bullying and even the atttempted blackmail of a Cabinet Minister, Robert Halfon.[6]
The Daily Mail newspaper reported that "newly-ennobled Baroness Pidding, a personal and political ally of Clarke and Chairman of his rebranded Road Trip 2020, also faces questions. She arranged for Clarke to be feted by Cameron in public at the Conservative National Convention in July."[7]
References
- ↑ "Woman from Chalfont St Giles is appointed to the House of Lords". getbucks. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
- ↑ "notice 2415685". The London Gazette.
- ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 60728. p. 9. 31 December 2013.
- ↑ "The House of Lords just welcomed a woman linked to a bullying scandal that is tearing the Tory party apart". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
- ↑ "Newsnight: Conservative Future leadership stripped of their positions - The Commentator". www.thecommentator.com. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
- ↑ "Cabinet Minister in sex blackmail plot:". Mail Online. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
- ↑ "Tory women blow the whistle on bully sex pest election guru". Mail Online. Retrieved 2015-11-20.