The Baroness Newlove, 1961-2025

[JL]

The House of Lords membership page has been updated to show the passing of Helen Margaret Newlove, Baroness Newlove, a Conservative member since 2010.

 She was born in Salford, Greater Manchester as Helen Margaret Marston on 28 December 1961 and married Garry Newlove in Salford in 1986.  She became a campaigner for victims after her husband was murdered by youths he had confronted for allegedly vandalising a family car outside their home in Warrington, Cheshire, on 12th August 2007.  She became the Victims' Commissioner in 2012, standing down in 2019 but resuming the role in 2023.

https://members.parliament.uk/members/Lords?SearchText=&PartyId=&Gender=Any&MembershipStatus=4&PolicyInterestId=&Experience=&ShowAdvanced=true

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Per the BBC, she died following " a short illness."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3dn394z90ro?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss

Brooke

On Wednesday, 12 November 2025 at 10:27:11 UTC-5 sven_me...@web.de wrote:

Was it suicide?

[Richard R]

Obit in the Times of 13 Nov 2025:

Baroness Newlove obituary: ‘shy housewife’ who fought for victims

Warrington mother who spoke out against antisocial behaviour after her husband’s brutal murder and was elevated to the Lords, dies aged 63

…One Friday night in August 2007, three drunken teenage hooligans began throwing beer bottles into the garden of her family’s council house in Warrington. When her husband Garry ran outside in his bare feet to remonstrate with the youths, who by now had started attacking his wife’s car, they punched him to the ground and proceeded to kick him in the head “like a football” in front of two of his daughters…by the time she arrived on the scene her husband was on the ground.

…As a widow and as a mother, she was appalled at the callous way the criminal justice system treated victims of violent crime…

…Newlove, who described herself as “a shy housewife” until her husband’s death, decided that she had a duty to speak out. She resolved to launch a campaign against antisocial behaviour and to seek to improve the way the system treated victims for the sake of other bereaved families.

…After she had made a TV documentary about her experience, she was contacted by David Cameron, then the leader of the opposition, although she was so convinced it was a hoax that she forwarded his email to Cheshire police. They assured her it was genuine and when they met, she found Cameron to be considerably more sympathetic to her demands than Straw.

As a result, following the 2010 general election he nominated her for a peerage in the Dissolution Honours list. “I am just an ordinary woman, propelled into high profile by a set of horrifying circumstances which I wish with all my heart had never occurred,” she said. With Cameron now installed in Downing Street, she took up her seat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords as Baroness Newlove of Warrington.

…Helen Margaret Newlove was born in 1961 in Lancashire into a working-class family and was educated at St Patrick’s High School, Eccles. On leaving school at 16, she worked in a chip shop but after taking a secretarial course at St Helens College she went on to become a typist at Manchester magistrates’ court.

After marrying in 1986 she took time out to start a family before returning to work as a legal secretary.

…“I was put in the House of Lords to represent victims and it isn’t about politics. It’s about delivering action to make people feel safe in their own homes,” she said. “I still get angry because we’ve got a long way to go”.

Baroness Newlove, campaigner and victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, was born on December 28, 1961. She died after a short illness on November 11, 2025, aged 63

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/baroness-newlove-obituary-shy-housewife-who-fought-for-victims-cjvtgmkq0 0

[Henry W]

I think Richard has said before that when posting news of a death we should always be mindful, especially for people not normally in the public eye, that googling of the name is likely to lead searches here.  If a member of the family were to stumble upon these threads, we want them to be factual and respectful.

Speculation about a cause of death, which doesn't do anything to further our core purpose, isn't factual, and certainly I would be worried about a recently bereaved person seeing the above speculation at an upsetting time regardless of what the cause actually is.

[Henry W]

This is a reposting of a previous post which clears some of the posts that were in the "quote trail", where the original messages have now been removed.  In order to completely remove these, I will delete that post, and repost my substantive comments:

Hansard of 12 November 2025

The Lord Speaker (Lord McFall of Alcluith)

My Lords, I regret to inform the House of the death of the noble Baroness, Lady Newlove, on 11 November. On behalf of the House I extend our condolences to the noble Baroness’s family and friends.

On Wednesday, 12 November 2025 at 15:13:15 UTC JL wrote: