Karen Jennings
Karen Jennings lives in Muswell Hill and has been an active member of the Labour Party for over 25 years. She is a qualified nurse and practised in the NHS for ten years¬†before becoming a researcher for Kent County Council and Maidstone Health¬†Authority. Karen’s knowledge and understanding of the NHS is extensive. She¬†now head’s UNISON’s Health Group on policy and¬†campaigns and is a recognised authority in the field. She has¬†over the last four years been voted one of the top 50 most influential people in¬†health by the Health Service Journal.
Karen is a seasoned campaigner who has built up her experience over many years. Her skills include building campaigning coalitions, harnessing activists and champions as well as acting as a campaign spokesperson. She has led campaigns that have resulted in changes to legislation and Government policy and drawn public attention to hidden issues such as the exploitation of internationally recruited nurses.  Karen also successfully campaigned to end pay discrimination and inequality in the NHS. As the National Secretary for Health in the trade union UNISON Karen is the elected Chair to the most senior negotiating committee in the NHS representing 1.3 million health workers.
 
Alongside her NHS and trade union career she has also developed a strong interest and passion for international affairs, particularly international health issues. Karen chaired the Global Health Taskforce for Public Service International for twenty years. This work has taken her to some of the poorest countries in the world where she has supported campaigning work on HIV and AIDS. Her last trip to Malawi with Oxfam provided testimony material which was taken to the 2007 G8 Summit.
 
A key motivation for Karen to seek election to Parliament is to combine her personal ability to support, represent and advocate for individuals and groups with her extensive policy making and influencing skills. She wants to make a difference to peoples’ lives for the better. She wants to take issues to Parliament and make Parliament work for the residents of Hornsey and Wood Green and across the UK.   
 
Karen has a daughter and a son who are now adults and she is very proud of them. Her daughter is soon to make her a grandmother. They are a close and loving family. 
 
Karen is one of six children, her mother was a cleaner and her father a mechanic, therefore she knows what it is to struggle. Also having spent years as a working single mum herself, she understands the pressures of balancing work and family life and the stresses and strains modern families have to bear. 
With a lifetime working in public services and a former nurse, Karen will bring these values to Parliament and maintain the highest standards of integrity and honesty. Karen will be a champion for aspiration and the ordinary people of Hornsey and Wood Green.
