Heidi Allen Biography
Heidi Allen is a British politician. She was previously a member of the Conservative Party, but joined The Independent Group on 20 February 2019.
During the 2015 general election, Allen was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Cambridgeshire.She succeeded Andrew Lansley, the former Conservative government minister who had held the seat since its creation in 1997, following his retirement from the House of Commons in 2015.
Heidi Allen Age
Heidi Allen was born as Heidi Suzanne Allen on 18 January 1975 in Notton, United Kingdom. She is 44 years old as of 2019.
Heidi Allen Spouse
Allen is married to Phil. The couple lives in Elsworth.
Heidi Allen Family
She was born to Renate Bancroft and Arthur Bancroft.
Heidi Allen
Heidi Allen Education
She got a degree in astrophysics from University College London (BSc).
Allen worked in various corporate positions, including ExxonMobil and the Royal Mail. In 2008 she joined the family classic-motorcycle paints business, RS Bike Paint Ltd, established by her parents in 1978 and now run by her husband Phil Allen.
She has said she was inspired to become active in politics after watching the scenes of the Tottenham riots, and first became a councillor in St Albans. Allen served as a councillor for 18 months before making a bid to become an MP.
Heidi Allen Career
Allen won the seat in the general election, increasing the Conservative majority and taking 51.1% of the votes cast.She also made her maiden speech before the House of Commons on 20 October 2015, when she detailed criticism of proposed cuts to tax credits, saying, ‘because today I can sit on my hands no longer’ and also voted in favour of triggering article 50 in a vote in the House of Commons.
On 5 December 2016, Allen announced her intention to put her name forward for the Conservative nomination for the election of Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in May 2017.
In December 2017, Allen displayed tears during a House of Commons debate on Universal Credit after hearing fellow MP, Frank Field, describe how he had talked a man out of suicide.
The Department for Work and Pensions later stated that “The two examples that [Field] gave were not claimants on Universal Credit” In the same month Allen voted along with fellow Conservative Dominic Grieve and nine other Tory MPs against the government, and in favour of guaranteeing Parliament a “Meaningful vote” on any Brexit deal Theresa May might agree with Brussels.
Allen said there was “No alternative other than asking – should we come to that, no deal, that looks like that’s what’s going to happen – then we need to go back to the public to decide what they want us to do next.” Allen further said that a second referendum should include the option of staying in the EU under current terms.
Heidi Allen Thibodeau 2018
(Story line: Aug 13, 2018 and Aug 12, 2018)
Gary Thibodeau dead who was the convicted kidnapper of Heidi Allen maintained his innocence. Even though he claimed to be innocent, he was sentensed twenty years in jail for the Allen kidnapping. Gary Thibodeau’s new trial spanned two decades. Unfortunetely he died less than two years away from his first possible parole hearing in January 2020. He was 64.
Thibodeau had been in hospice care for the past year in the hospital ward of the Coxsackie Correctional Facility, south of Albany. He died from complications related to COPD, a lung disease, his lawyer confirmed. An autopsy is pending.
He had lost his last-chance state appeal to overturn his conviction in Allen’s disappearance from the D&W convenience store on Easter Day 1994.
Thibodeau had maintained his innocence throughout his final days. But his death meant he will had no more chances to clear his name – plans for a federal appeal died with him. He would remain the convicted criminal who kidnapped the 18-year-old store clerk.
Thibodeau died less than two years away from his first possible parole hearing in January 2020. He was sentenced in 1995 to 25 years to life in prison.
Allen’s case received renewed attention in 2014 after multiple people came forward alleging that three other men had implicated themselves in her kidnapping and presumed death.
A lengthy hearing in 2015 involved 52 witnesses – including the three who were named as possible new suspects, who each denied involvement – and concluded with Visiting Judge Daniel King ruling that the new information would be inadmissible at trial.
That ruling was debated by both a Rochester appellate court and, in June of this year, the state’s highest court, which ruled against a new trial in a narrow 4-3 decision. There wasn’t enough independent evidence to corroborate alleged confessions made by the other three men, the court majorities ruled.
Allen’s disappearance April 3, 1994 set off a massive search and led to arrests of Thibodeau and his brother Richard, the last man known to have seen Allen alive.
Oswego County prosecutors went to trial against the Thibodeau brothers in 1995, arguing that the brothers had kidnapped Allen together in Richard’s van. Prosecutors presented a circumstantial case, presenting no physical evidence linking the brothers to the kidnapping.
Separate juries acquitted Richard and convicted Gary in perhaps the most controversial trial outcome in local history. Photos of Gary Thibodeau’s shocked reaction to the jury’s guilty verdict have circulated ever since.
Gary Thibodeau’s appeal for a new trial was shot down decades ago by state appellate courts and a federal review. After that point, Thibodeau said he felt no hope that he’d ever get out and wanted to die.
“I’ve been innocent since Day One,” he told Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard in July 2014.
“I just figured, well, there ain’t no chance now,” he said after the appeals were exhausted. “No sense in giving them the 25 (years). I’ll let my body go to hell and hope I can die a lot sooner. I ain’t gonna kill myself, but if it happens naturally, that’s fine with me.”
But Thibodeau said in 2015 that new information linking others to the crime had given him renewed hope.
“I’ve been driving this vehicle for 62 years,” he said in March 2015. “I know it’s just about done. I don’t want to die, But I can feel it, that I don’t have a whole lot of time left. But I’m not wishing and wanting and begging like I was before.”
His lawyer, Lisa Peebles, vowed in recent weeks to keep fighting as long as Thibodeau could hold on. She asked the state’s high court to reconsider its 4-3 decision in paperwork filed in mid-July.
“All we have to do is swing one more judge,” Peebles noted.
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Independent Group: Three MPs quit Tory party to join Independent Group
Published on 20 February 2019
Three Tory MPs have resigned from the party to join an independent group, set up by former Labour MPs.
Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen wrote a joint letter to Theresa May to confirm their departure.
The three held a press conference, criticising the government for letting the “hard-line anti-EU awkward squad” take over the party.
The PM said she was “saddened”, but her party would “always offer… decent, moderate and patriotic politics”.
The pro-Remain trio will join the new Independent Group – made up of eight Labour MPs who resigned from their party over its handling of Brexit and anti-Semitism – saying it represented “the centre ground of British politics”.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Ms Soubry criticised Theresa May for being “in the grip” of the Democratic Unionist Party and the pro-Leave European Research Group, and allowing Brexit to “define and shape” the Conservative Party.
She said: “The battle is over, the other side has won.
“The right wing, the hard-line anti-EU awkward squad that have destroyed every leader for the last 40 years are now running the Conservative Party from top to toe. They are the Conservative Party.”
Ms Wollaston said she felt “great sadness” at quitting the party, but said Mrs May “simply hasn’t delivered on the pledge she made on the steps of Downing Street to tackle the burning injustices in our society”.
And Ms Allen highlighted her concerns around poverty, as well as Brexit, saying: “I can no longer represent a government and a party who can’t open its eyes to the suffering endured by the most vulnerable in society – suffering which we have deepened whilst having the power to fix.”
The three MPs said they will support the government on areas such as the economy, security and improvements to public services, and Ms Soubry defended the record of the coalition government – including the “necessary” austerity measures taken by chancellor George Osborne.
But they felt “honour bound to put our constituents’ and country’s interests first” over Brexit.
Watched by the eight other members of The Independent Group on the front row at the press conference, Ms Allen said she was “excited” about the future, adding: “I want to be part of something better, a party that people vote for because they want to, not because they feel they have to.”
The departure of the three MPs – who all support the People’s Vote campaign for another EU referendum – has reduced the government’s working majority to nine MPs, and Ms Allen claimed there were “absolutely” other colleagues “keen” to join the group.
And the Independent Group now has more MPs in Parliament than the Democratic Unionist Party and equals the number of Liberal Democrats.
Today’s departures are evidence of how serious Conservative divisions have become.
Right now, as with Labour, it’s a splinter, not a split. But don’t underestimate how hard a decision it is for any MP to abandon their tribe.
These departures illustrate, therefore, a real problem for the governing party.
Like Labour, the Tories have big questions they can’t answer at the moment – profound quandaries that it’s not clear their leaderships are ready, or perhaps even capable right now of meeting.
Mrs May said the UK’s membership of the EU had been “a source of disagreement both in our party and our country for a long time”, so “ending that membership after four decades was never going to be easy”.
But, she added: “By delivering on our manifesto commitment and implementing the decision of the British people we are doing the right thing for our country.”
Former Prime Minister David Cameron said he respected the decision of the three MPs, but disagreed with them, calling for “strong voices at every level of the party calling for modern, compassionate Conservatism.”
Mr Cameron added: “Our party has long been able to contain different views on Europe. Everyone must ensure that can continue to be the case.”
A Labour spokesman criticised The Independent Group, saying they had formed “what is effectively an establishment coalition based on the failed and rejected policies of the past”, such as austerity, corporate tax cuts and privatisation.
But Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said his party would “hold out the hand of friendship” to the group and said they already had “a good working relationship” with the MPs.
The Conservative party’s deputy chairman, Tory MP James Cleverly, told BBC Radio 5 Live that the resignations were “very sad and disappointing”, which was echoed by Communities Secretary James Brokenshire. But he added that the focus “has to remain on delivering Brexit” and the Conservative party was “a broad church and will remain so”.
Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd said it was a “great shame to have lost the commitment and undeniable talent” of the three MPs.
Remain-backing Tory MP Nicky Morgan said the party “should regret losing three such talented women from the Conservative Party”.
Former Cabinet office minister, Damian Green, tweeted that he hoped the three MPs rejoined the party one day.
Some Labour MPs have been criticising their former colleagues for joining forces with ex-Conservatives.
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said it was “a new low” to see the MP of her home town, Ann Coffey, welcoming an MP responsible for government cuts, adding: “I’m utterly disgusted.”
Scottish Labour MP Danielle Rowley also questioned her former colleagues, tweeting: “How people who once called themselves Labour can cosy up next to the likes of Soubry, smiling and laughing, is absolutely beyond me.
“I guess we now know how their policies and values differ from Labour.”
Others have been criticising the group for not holding by-elections to win back their seats as independent MPs.
Douglas Carswell, who resigned from the Conservatives to join UKIP in 2014, tweeted: “When I changed parties it didn’t occur to me to not hold a by election. If my own electorate weren’t supportive, what was the point?”
However, Ms Allen rejected calls for them to step down to contest by-elections, saying: “This is what the big parties do. They want to crush the birth of democracy. They want to crush people like us trying to change things for this country.
“This is the game, of course, they will play but we are better than that, and we think our constituents and the country deserve better than that.”
Adopted from www.bbc.com
Heidi Allen Resignation
On 20 February 2019, Allen resigned from the Conservative Party, along with two other MPs from her party (Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston), joining the newly formed The Independent Group.