Elizabeth Peacock

{{Short description|British politician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}

{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Elizabeth Peacock

| honorific-suffix =

| image =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1937|9|4}}

| birth_place =

| death_date =

|death_place =

| office = Member of Parliament
for Batley and Spen

| term_start = 9 June 1983

| term_end = 8 April 1997

| predecessor = New constituency

| successor = Mike Wood

|office2 = Parliamentary Private Secretary for the Social Security and Disabled People Unit
under Nicholas Scott

|primeminister2 = John Major

|term2 = 1992

|term_end2 =

|predecessor2 =

|successor2 =

| parliament = United Kingdom

| party = Conservative

| spouse = {{marriage|Brian David|1957}}

| children = 2 sons{{cite news|title=Vote 2001, Candidate – Elizabeth Peacock|publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/vote2001/candidates/candidates/0/03402.stm|accessdate=22 May 2013|date=8 June 2001}}

| nationality = British

}}

Elizabeth Joan Peacock (née Gates; born 4 September 1937) is a British Conservative politician and former Member of Parliament for the West Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen.

Peacock served as a North Yorkshire County Councillor from 1981 to 1984, and represented Batley and Spen from 1983 to 1997, during which time she was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Nicholas Scott as Minister for Social Security and Disabled People Unit (1992). Peacock was opposed to abortion, and sometimes advocated direct action. In the debate on the Abortion Amendment Law in January 1988, she was a supporter of the Bill, speaking out for lowering the time-frame in which a legal abortion is permitted, originally standing at 28 weeks, in the Abortion (Amendment) Bill.{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1988/jan/22/abortion-amendment-bill-1|website=Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)|title=Abortion (Amendment) Bill |date=22 January 1988|access-date=14 December 2017}} Peacock stood again in the 2001 election, unsuccessfully, and declined to stand in the 2005 election.{{cite web|url=http://www.qub.ac.uk/cawp/UK%20bios/UK_bios_80s.htm#peacock|website=qub.ac.uk|title=Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics |accessdate=14 December 2017}}

She was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.{{cite web|title=Elizabeth Peacock interviewed by Henry Irving|url=http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/The-History-of-Parliament-Oral-History-Project/021M-C1503X0029XX-0001V0|publisher=British Library Sound Archive|accessdate=26 January 2018}}

Peacock continues to be interviewed occasionally on political issues; for example, in April 2019 she appeared on the BBC's regional politics programme, Sunday Politics, supporting Brexit.BBC1, Sunday Politics, 7 April 2019.

In reference to the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election, Peacock said that the respect must be earned in the Red wall.{{Cite news|date=2021-06-11|title=Batley and Spen by-election: Why Hartlepool comparisons are wrong|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-57429588|access-date=2021-06-11}}