About Hazel Blears
Hazel Anne Blears (born 14 May 1956) is a British former Labour Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) successively for the constituencies of Salford and Salford and Eccles between 1997 and 2015. One of 101 female Labour MPs elected at the 1997 general election, Blears served in the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio and Chair of the Labour Party between 2006 and 2007, and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2007 to 2009, before resigning as a result of the expenses scandal. Commenting on her resignation, Gordon Brown said that Blears had made an "outstanding contribution" to public life. Blears was re-elected in 2010 and remained a backbencher, before standing down at the 2015 election. In May 2008, Blears mistakenly commented on BBC's Question Time that there were 3 million people unemployed in the United Kingdom when Labour came to power in 1997 (the official figure was 1,602,500). Harriet Harman won the election on 24 June 2007.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.