Editing Gillian Merron (section)

==Parliamentary career==
Merron was made a [[prospective parliamentary candidate]] (PPC) through an [[all-women shortlists|all-women shortlist]],<ref>{{cite news
 | title = Labour blow as all-women lists outlawed
 | first = John
 | last = Rentoul
 | authorlink =
 | author2 = Stephen Ward
 | author3 = Donald MacIntyre
 | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/labour-blow-as-allwomen-lists-outlawed-1323046.html
 | work = The Independent
 | date = 9 January 1996
 | accessdate = 10 July 2009
| location=London}}</ref> and was elected to the House of Commons in May 1997 with a majority of 11,130. From July 1998 to July 1999, she served as [[Parliamentary Private Secretary]] (PPS) to [[Doug Henderson (Labour politician)|Doug Henderson]] as [[Minister of State for the Armed Forces]] and, from July 1999 to June 2001, she was PPS to Baroness Symons as Minister of State for Defence Procurement.

From June 2001 to October 2002, Merron served as PPS to [[John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan|John Reid]] as [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]]. From October 2002 to May 2006, she was a government [[whip (politics)|whip]] and was a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from December 2004. At the 2005 general election, her majority was 4,613.

Merron was appointed to the [[Department for Transport]] in May 2006, where she worked until the reshuffle on 29 June 2007, when she became [[Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office]] and the first ever [[regional minister|minister]] of the [[East Midlands]].

Following [[Peter Hain]]'s resignation on 24 January 2008, Merron was reshuffled again, becoming a [[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State]] in the [[Department for International Development]], leaving both of her previous roles. Following [[Gordon Brown]]'s next reshuffle on 5 October 2008, Merron was moved to the Foreign Office and Commonwealth Office. A promotion to [[Minister of State for Public Health]] soon followed.

Merron followed the party whip in votes on equal gay rights, the hunting ban, foundation hospitals, a ban on smoking in public places, the Iraq war, preventative laws to stop climate change, and The [[Digital Economy Act 2010|Digital Economy Bill]].<ref>[https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/gillian_merron/lincoln Gillian Merron MP, Lincoln (TheyWorkForYou.com)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> She lost her seat to the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] candidate [[Karl McCartney]] in the [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010 general election]]. From 1997 until 2007, when [[Quentin Davies]] defected to the Labour Party, she had been Lincolnshire's only Labour MP – and the first since [[Margaret Beckett]] had the seat from 1974 to 1979.

===Expenses===
Merron’s expenses as an MP were higher than average.<ref>{{cite web
| title       = Gillian Merron MP
| url         = https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/gillian_merron/lincoln#expenses
| work        = TheyWorkForYou
| publisher   = mySociety is a project of UK Citizens Online Democracy (UKCOD). UKCOD is a registered charity in England and Wales, no. 1076346. | accessdate  = 12 May 2009
}}</ref> She is one of 98 MPs who voted to support Conservative MP [[David Maclean]]'s [https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills/200607/freedom_of_information_amendment.htm bill] to keep their expenses and correspondence secret.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1816072.ece | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508020947/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1816072.ece | url-status=dead | archive-date=8 May 2009 | work=The Times | location=London | title=How your MP voted on the FOI Bill | date=20 May 2007 | accessdate=3 May 2010}}</ref><ref>[http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/policy.php?id=996&display=motions Policy #996: "Transparency of Parliament" — The Public Whip]</ref>

{|class="wikitable sortable"
|+Total expenses claimed
!Year!!Total Expenses!!Ranking!!out of
|-
|2001/02||£94,459||joint 178th||657
|-
|2002/03||£123,954||87th||657
|-
|2003/04||£136,706||55th||658
|-
|2004/05||£139,854||64th||659
|-
|2005/06||£133,480||-||-
|-
|2006/07||£144,914||176th||645
|-
|2007/08||£155,972||172nd||645
|}

On 19 June 2009, MPs' expenses were revealed (heavily edited) on the internet. Merron received criticism for purchasing a television, television stand, home theatre kit, and numerous other goods.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120913005333/http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/news/best-Lincoln/article-1091098-detail/article.html 'I will do what I always do, my best for Lincoln'<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> She wrote on her website: "The majority of claims I make directly pay for professional staff, office costs, communication with constituents, and travel. I do not have a second job, do not employ any family members or friends, nor have I taken the annual increase in ministerial salary."<ref>http://www.gillianmerron.co.uk/mps-allowances{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In the aftermath of the [[United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal]], [[Thomas Legg|Sir Thomas Legg]] recommended that Gillian Merron repay £6,305.17.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.politics.co.uk/feature/legal-and-constitutional/expenses-the-mps-paying-over-1k-$1357745.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120919031458/http://www.politics.co.uk/feature/legal-and-constitutional/expenses-the-mps-paying-over-1k-$1357745.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 September 2012|title=Expenses: The MPs paying over £1K|publisher=politics.co.uk}}</ref> She repaid this amount in full.<ref>{{cite news|last=Cohen|first=Justin|url=http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/former-foreign-office-minister-appointed-lead-board/|title=Former Foreign Office minister appointed to lead the Board|work=Jewish News|date=7 May 2014|accessdate=3 December 2016}}</ref>