Kishwer Falkner, Baroness Falkner of Margravine
| The Right Honourable The Baroness Falkner of Margravine |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 March 1955 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal Democrats |
| Alma mater | London School of Economics University of Kent |
Kishwer Falkner, Baroness Falkner of Margravine (née Khan; born 9 March 1955) is a British Liberal Democrat politician and Life Peer. She is the lead Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs in the House of Lords.[1]
Prior to her enoblement as a life peer with the title Baroness Falkner of Margravine, of Barons Court in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham on 2 June 2004,[2] Falkner worked in a variety of jobs for the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons and the party headquarters including as Director of International Affairs and Director of Policy. She has also worked at the Commonwealth Secretariat and as Chief Executive of Student Partnerships Worldwide. In February 2008 she was appointed as the inaugural chancellor of The University of Northampton.
Life
Kishwer Falkner was born in Pakistan and after living and working in the Middle East, moved to the UK in the late seventies. Falkner was educated at convent schools in Pakistan, the London School of Economics where she obtained a BSc (Econ) in International Relations and the University of Kent where she obtained an MA in International Relations and European Studies.
Political career
She joined the Liberal Democrats in the mid-eighties and worked for the party in several posts till 1999. She stood as prospective parliamentary candidate in Kensington and Chelsea in 2001, gaining the highest ethnic minority vote for Liberal Democrats in London, and as a European Parliamentary Candidate in 2004.
Kishwer was the Liberal Democrats’ Director of International and European Affairs for several years, co-authoring much of the Party’s policy on the European Union, and coordinating a joint response for European Liberals on issues related to Europe’s structures and place in the world. Kishwer also worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat, where she continued to work on the broader issues of globalisation, democracy and development. Most recently, Kishwer was Chief Executive of a charity working with young people in some of the poorest parts of Africa and Asia.
Falkner contested Kensington and Chelsea in the 2001 General Election and was on the Liberal Democrats list for London in the 2004 European elections.
Personal life
Kishwer is married to Robert Falkner, an academic at the London School of Economics, and they have one daughter, Sophia, who is currently studying Economic History and Economics at the London School of Economics.
References
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- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 57309. p. 7059. 7 June 2004.
