Beverly Hughes (who is the MP for Stratford and Ruston) used to go to Whitby High School in the days when it was known as Ellesmere Port Grammar School. She went to the girl's grammar school between 1961 and 1968, before she went up to Manchester University. Roy Anelay & Shaun Sutton (Year 9 Dec 2004)

More detailed biography here - An article by our own A Level Politics students:

After becoming a Lecturer there in 1981, she became a Senior Lecturer, then Head of Department between 1993-1997. After a career in local politics where she was council leader, Ms Hughes was elected as Labour MP for Stretford and Urmston in 1997. She then made a very rapid ascent of the ladder of power, becoming parliamentary private secretary to Hilary Armstrong in 1998, and then a junior minister at the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions. Ms Hughes then joined the Home Office as child protection minister after the 2001 election. Her expertise is in social policy and she has fought long and hard for the rights of women and pensioners. She took on responsibility for asylum and immigration in the 2002 reshuffle following Stephen Byers' departure from government.

However, this week Ms Hughes decided to step down from her position as a Member of the Cabinet. The reason for this is the recent controversy over the applications of people in Eastern Europe to live in Great Britain. The problems were brought to light after a British worker in the British Embassy in Romania highlighted the fact that over a year ago, the minister had been given notice about attempts by Romanians to successfully apply for asylum in the U.K illegitimately. As Beverly Hughes was the minister responsible for immigration, it was her overall responsibility to make sure immigration to the U.K was fair and proper.

On 29th March 2004, over a year after the alleged notice about the problems in Romania were apparently given to Ms Hughes, the Conservative shadow home secretary, David Davies, questioned her in Parliament over the allegation that Britain was about to be swamped with bogus Romanian asylum seekers, who had given flimsy evidence that they were coming to Britain for a legitimate reason. On 30th March, Ms Hughes defended herself in parliament over questions about her integrity. She refused to resign, despite calls for her to go over the apparent mishandling of the entire affair, and allegations that she had known about the problems facing the British embassy in Romania for the best part of a year.

The next day, despite the full backing of her boss, Home Secretary David Blunkett, Ms Hughes said she could no longer carry out her duties with a clear conscience, and stepped down from the government. She continues in her role as Member of Parliament for Stretford and Urmston. The row over foreigners coming to Britain to live illegally continues.

It has certainly been a difficult time for Beverley, but we are proud to see a former pupil achieving such a high profile position in government - and an inspiration, especially to us A Level Politics students! We are sure she will return to an important post soon and we wish her continued success in government.

Researched and written by Year 13 A Level Politics Class (2 April 2004)

David Dry, Ashley Hovell, Laura Williams, Laura Walmsley (Teacher, Mr M.W.Royden)