Currie, Edwina (1946- )

UK Conservative Party politician, writer, and broadcaster. She was member of Parliament for Derbyshire South 1983-97, serving in Margaret Thatcher's government from 1985 until her resignation as junior health minister in 1988 over her controversial comments about salmonella infection in British egg production. She declined John Major's request to return to the Conservative government in 1992 and lost her seat in the 1997 general election. She then started a career in broadcasting for the BBC, having already published several bestselling fictional books.

Elected to Parliament in 1983, she was briefly a parliamentary private secretary at the Department of Education and Science before her appointment as undersecretary of state for health. She promoted various campaigns to encourage healthier lifestyles, but her reputation was badly damaged when egg sales plummeted after her remarks on food safety. Having written several successful novels, she published her controversial Diaries 1987-1992 in 2002. From 1997 she was active in radio and television broadcasting.

Born in Liverpool, she studied philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford University and then gained a masters degree at the London School of Economics. After various teaching and lecturing posts, she started her political career in 1975 as a local councillor in Birmingham and then chairman of the Central Birmingham Health Authority.