Vera Baird QC was elected MP for Redcar in 2001 and became a member of the government in 2006.  In 2007, Gordon Brown appointed her Solicitor General.  As a criminal defence barrister she was involved in key civil liberties cases and landmark cases involving battered women who kill.  She became a QC in 2000.

Vera was born in Oldham.  She attended Chadderton Grammar School followed by Northumbria University where she obtained a 2:1 LLB.  During this time she was active in student politics at the same time Jack Straw was President of the NUS.  In 1975 she was called to the Bar in Gray’s Inn.  In 1983 she obtained a BA 2:1 in Literature and Modern History and is currently working on a MPhil (History) at Teeside University. 

From 1999 – 2002 she was a Human Rights Law Trainer for the Criminal Bar Association.  In 1999 she was a visiting Law Fellow at St Hilda’s College, Oxford where she undertook research on reforming the law on homicide. She is now an Honorary Fellow of St. Hilda’s and a Bencher of Gray’s Inn. Ms Baird is also a visiting Professor at South Bank University.

As a key member of Michael Mansfield’s chambers at Tooks Court since 1986, Ms Baird has taken part in some of the key civil liberties cases.  She successfully defended the four women charged with Criminal Damage to a Hawk aircraft destined for bombing East Timor, has worked on cases about almost every protest movement in the last two decades from Greenham Common to Menwith Hill. She represented Emma Humphreys in her ground-breaking case about the law on battered women who kill their violent partners and has represented many men and women on every kind of serious crime, at the Old Bailey, the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords.  She can no longer practice as a barrister since becoming a Minister in 2006.

A considerable amount of her pre-election work focused around legal issues and as a leading member of Justice for Women, she was involved in reform of the laws surrounding rape.   She is also very interested in reform of workplace law, especially as it affects women. 

Ms Baird contested the Berwick seat at the 1983 General Election and became the member for Redcar following the General Election on 7th June 2001. 

She was Chair of the Fawcett commission on women and the criminal justice system from 2002 until she became a Minister. This investigated the way the system treats women as defendants, complainants and as workers engaged in the courts. It made a number of radical recommendations and Together Women, a new sentencing option for women, was announced by the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke at the launch of its Report "One Year On".

She was a member of the following: Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Human Rights 2001-2003, Work and Pensions: 2003-2005, Corruption Bill 2003, Armed Forces Bill: 2005-2006. She was also a member of various Standing Committees including: Proceeds of Crime Bill 2001-02, Criminal Justice Bill 2003; Domestic Violence Bill 2003-04, Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill 2005. 

As a backbencher she was involved in a number of All Party Parliamentary Groups including being the Joint Chair of the Democracy in Burma APPG and Chair of the APPGs on Equalities, Domestic Violence and Citizen’s Advice.  She was also the Honorary Secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s (PLP) Women’s Committee and is Chair of the Community Union Group of Labour MP’s.  She was appointed Parliamentary aide to Charles Clarke as Home Secretary between 2005 and 2006.  She won the Spectator’s Backbencher of the Year prize in 2004.

In 2006 Ms Baird was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, now Ministry of Justice.  Her responsibilities include reform of the legal aid system, which is undergoing a major reform at present to contain costs while still ensuring that people are fairly treated in legal matters.  Shewas the minister responsible for equalities, civil justice, social exclusion and women and sentencing.  The Ministry of Justice has a major role in combating the causes of social exclusion by making sure vulnerable people can get access to advice if they have problems with debt, housing or welfare benefits. 

In 2007 Gordon Brown appointed Vera Solicitor General in his new government.  The Solicitor General is deputy to the Attorney General Baroness Scotland. The Attorney General and the Solicitor General (the Law Officers of the Crown, together with the Advocate General of Scotland), have three main functions:

Guardians of the public interest.
Chief Legal Advisers to the government.
Criminal Justice Ministers.

The Attorney General and Solicitor General have overall responsibility for the Treasury Solicitor and supervise the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Director of the Serious Fraud Office, the Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office, HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and the DPP for Northern Ireland.

Vera's interests include travel, reading, running, and Zack, her rescued Bedlington Terrier dog.  She was widowed in 1979 and has two stepsons. 

Publications

‘Perverting the Course of Justice’, ‘The Law of Harassment’, ‘Rape in Court’, ‘Battered Women who Kill and the Criminal Law’, ‘The Last Resort, a study of the Criminal Cases Review Commission’.