Tessa Jowell

The Right Honourable The Baroness Jowell DBE PC
Official portrait, 2007
Minister for the Cabinet Office
In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Liam Byrne
Succeeded by	Francis Maude
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In office 8 June 2001 – 27 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Chris Smith
Succeeded by	James Purnell
Shadow portfolios Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office In office 20 January 2011 – 7 October 2011 Leader Ed Miliband Preceded by Liam Byrne Succeeded by Jon Trickett In office 11 May 2010 – 8 October 2010 Leader Harriet Harman (acting) Preceded by Francis Maude Succeeded by Liam Byrne Shadow Minister for London In office 11 May 2010 – 16 January 2013 Leader Harriet Harman (acting) Ed Miliband Preceded by Office established Succeeded by Sadiq Khan Shadow Minister for the Olympics In office 11 May 2010 – 11 September 2012 Leader Harriet Harman (acting) Ed Miliband Preceded by Jeremy Hunt Succeeded by Office abolished Shadow Minister for Women In office 19 October 1995 – 26 July 1996 Leader Tony Blair Preceded by Clare Short Succeeded by Janet Anderson
Junior ministerial offices Minister for London In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010 Prime Minister Gordon Brown Preceded by Tony McNulty Succeeded by Gavin Barwell (2016) In office 28 June 2007 – 3 October 2008 Prime Minister Gordon Brown Preceded by Jim Fitzpatrick Succeeded by Tony McNulty Paymaster General In office 28 June 2007 – 11 May 2010 Prime Minister Gordon Brown Preceded by Dawn Primarolo Succeeded by Francis Maude Minister for the Olympics In office 6 July 2005 – 11 May 2010 Prime Minister Tony Blair Gordon Brown Preceded by Office established Succeeded by Jeremy Hunt Minister for Women In office 5 May 2005 – 5 May 2006 Prime Minister Tony Blair Preceded by Patricia Hewitt Succeeded by Ruth Kelly
Parliamentary offices Members of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Life peerage 27 October 2015 – 12 May 2018 Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood Dulwich (1992–1997) In office 9 April 1992 – 30 March 2015 Preceded by Gerald Bowden Succeeded by Helen Hayes
Personal details
Born	Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Palmer (1947-09-18)18 September 1947 Marylebone, London, England
Died	12 May 2018(2018-05-12) (aged 70) Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, England
Political party	Labour
Spouses	Roger Jowell ​ ​ (m. 1970; div. 1977)​ David Mills ​ (m. 1979)​
Children	2, including Jess Mills
Relatives	Ella Woodward (daughter-in-law)
Alma mater	University of Aberdeen University of Edinburgh University of London
Signature

Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, DBE, PC (née Palmer; 18 September 1947 – 12 May 2018) was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich and West Norwood, previously Dulwich, from 1992 to 2015.

Jowell held a number of major government ministerial positions, as well as opposition appointments, during this period. She served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from 2001 to 2007 and Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2009 to 2010. A member of both the Blair and Brown Cabinets, she was also Minister for the Olympics (2005–10) and Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London until September 2012, resigning after the London Olympic Games.

A Privy Councillor from 1998,^[1] she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2012.^[2] She stood down from the House of Commons at the 2015 general election.

She was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours and was raised to the peerage as Baroness Jowell, of Brixton in the London Borough of Lambeth, on 27 October 2015. In September 2015, she was unsuccessful in seeking to be selected as the Labour Party's official candidate in the 2016 London mayoral election, coming second to Sadiq Khan in the contest of six candidates.