About Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
Janet Anne Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (born 20 August 1955), is a British Labour Co-operative Party politician. A former secretary and adviser to Neil Kinnock, Royall was appointed to the House of Lords in 2004 after having stood unsuccessfully to be MEP for The Cotswolds, and to be MP for Ipswich and Ogmore. She also stood to be a member of Gloucestershire County Council. From October 2008, she was Leader of the House of Lords for the last eighteen months of Gordon Brown's premiership. Royall was Principal of Somerville College, Oxford from August 2017 until October 2025 and was a candidate in the 2024 University of Oxford Chancellor election. She was succeeded by Catherine Royle in October 2025. She is the current Chair of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. On 25 June 2004, she was created a life peer as Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, of Blaisdon in the County of Gloucestershire. Royall's first job after graduating was importing flowers from Colombia and she also trained as a secretary.
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