Clare Short was born to Irish parents on February 15, 1946 and is one of Britain's most famous woman politicians. She is the Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood and was Secretary of State for International Development from May 2, 1997 until her resignation on May 12, 2003.

With a degree in political science from Keele University, she became a civil servant in the Home Office. Working as Private Secretary to the Conservative minister Mark Carlisle gave her the idea that she "could do better" than many of the MPs she dealt with, and in the 1983 UK general election she became MP for Ladywood, the area where she grew up in and attended a Roman Catholic grammar school.

From the start of her career she was on the left wing of the Labour party. In 1986 she gained attention for campaigning against "Page Three" photographs of topless models in The Sun and other British tabloid newspapers. She supported Tony Benn in the Labour leadership election in 1988 and also called for the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland.

Claire rose through the ranks of the Labour Front Bench, despite twice resigning from it - over the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1988, and over the Gulf War in 1990. She became shadow Minister for Women, and then shadow Transport Secretary, but in 1996 was moved to the Overseas Development portfolio, a move that was widely seen as a demotion, perhaps as a punishment for her outspokenness. She has been a controversial figure throughout her career, most notably when she called for the legalisation of cannabis.

After the 1997 UK general election the Overseas Development Administration was given full departmental status as the Department for International Development, with Short as the first cabinet-level Secretary of State for International Development. She retained this post throughout the first term of the Labour government, and beyond the 2001 UK general election into the second. In May 2003, Clare resigned from the Cabinet in protest over the war in Iraq.

Her book, An Honourable Deception?: New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power was released on November 1, 2004. It is an account of her career in New Labour, her relationship with Tony Blair, the relationship between Blair and Gordon Brown and the build up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.