Lena Jeger

Lena May Jeger, Baroness Jeger (née Chivers; 19 November 1915 – 26 February 2007) was a British Labour MP during two periods. She followed her husband as Member of Parliament for Holborn and St Pancras South, holding the seat from 1953 to 1959. She retook the seat in 1964, retaining it until 1979, when she became a life peer.

Early life She was born Lena May Chivers in Wood Green, Middlesex. Her father was a postman. She was educated at Southgate County School in north London, and read English and French at Birkbeck College, University of London. She was vice-president of the National Union of Students.

During the Second World War she worked at the Ministry of Information and the Foreign Office. A fluent Russian speaker, she edited the British Ally, a newspaper published by the British government in the Soviet Union.

She also worked at the British Embassy in Moscow. In 1948, she married Dr Santo Jeger, a general practitioner by profession, who had been Member of Parliament for St Pancras South East since the 1945 UK general election. She left the civil service in 1949, and worked for The Manchester Guardian from 1951 to 1954. The seat was renamed Camden, Holborn and St Pancras South in 1974, and she retained it until the 1979 general election. Despite the Conservative election victory, her seat was retained by Labour's Frank Dobson. Jeger believed that MPs should "give a lead to public opinion and not always follow it."