Muriel Turner, Baroness Turner of Camden

Muriel Winifred Turner, Baroness Turner of Camden (née Price; 18 September 1922 – 26 February 2018) was a British Labour politician and trade union leader.

The Right Honourable The Baroness Turner of Camden
Member of the House of Lords
In office 29 May 1985 – 13 June 2017
Personal details
Born	Muriel Winifred Price (1922-09-18)18 September 1922 London, England
Died	26 February 2018(2018-02-26) (aged 95) London, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Reginald Turner ​ ​ (m. 1955; died 1995)​

Background

Muriel Winifred Price was born in Balham, London, on 18 September 1922, the daughter of George and Winifred (née Bishop) Price.^[1][2] She spent her early years in Bromley, Kent.^[2] After an early marriage to George Springall, in 1947, subsequently ended in divorce, she married Reginald Thomas Frederick Turner, MC, DFC, in 1955.^[2][3] They did not have any children together but the marriage brought two step children.^[4] He predeceased her, dying in 1995.^[3]

Career

Between 1970 and 1987 Turner was Assistant General Secretary of ASTMS (later Manufacturing, Science and Finance, Amicus and now Unite the Union).^[5][6] From 1981 to 1987 she was a member of the TUC General Council.^[5]

She was created a Life Peer on 29 May 1985 taking the title Baroness Turner of Camden, of Camden in Greater London.^[7] She had a particular interest in social welfare and pensions issues,^[5] and from 1987 until October 1996 was Front Bench Spokesperson on Employment for the Labour Opposition.^[6] She was Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords between 2002 and 2008.^[5][8]

She was a member of the Equal Opportunities Commission 1982–88; the Occupational Pensions Board 1977–93; Council Member, Occupational Pensions Advisory Service, 1989–2007; and chair, Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman Council 1994–97. She was a ranking member of British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom.^[8]

Her membership in the House ended on 13 June 2017.^[9]

Personal life

Turner was vice-president of Humanists UK^[10] and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.^[11] On 15 September 2010, Turner, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.^[12]

Turner died in Croydon, London, on 26 February 2018, at the age of 95 (though many sources, using her publicly reported birth year of 1927, gave her age as 90).^[2][13][14]