Hart, Judith (1924—)

British politician who was minister of overseas development. Name variations: Lady Hart. Born Constance Mary Judith Ridehalgh in Burnley, Lancashire, England, in 1924; attended the London School of Economics; married Dr. Anthony Hart, in 1946; children: two sons.

Judith Hart, born in Lancashire, England, in 1924, was a member of the Labour Party and active in politics for most of her life. Hart became a member of Parliament in 1959, elected by the Scottish constituency of Lanark. From 1964 to 1971, she held a number of ministerial posts, including joint parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Scottish Office (1964–66), minister of state for Commonwealth Affairs (1966–67), minister of social security (1967), and paymaster-general (1968).

Hart's greatest contribution, however, was as minister of overseas development, a post she held from 1969 to 1970, 1974 to 1975, and 1977 to 1979. She was particularly outspoken about the United Kingdom's moral responsibility to third world countries, a subject she also explored in Aid and Liberation: A Socialist Study of Aid Policies (1973). Trained as a sociologist, Hart had a well-informed grasp of the problems in third-world development. She had nearly finished a restructuring of British aid policy to offer rural development in villages and priority to the poorest countries in 1979, but this seemed to conflict with the agenda of Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She was also opposed to membership in the European Economic Community (EEC) and for that Prime Minister Harold Wilson asked Hart to transfer to the ministry of transport so that he might incorporate her ministry with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. With that, she resigned. Starting in 1969, Hart also served as a member of the Labour Party National Executive, and chaired the industrial policy sub-committee and the finance and economic sub-committee. Married in 1946 to Dr. Anthony Hart, she has two sons.