Former UK Secretary of State for International Development
was the Secretary of State for International Development in the Cabinet of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 until 2003. Since 2006, Short has been a member of the Cities Alliance Policy Advisory Board and subsequently chaired the Policy Advisory Forum, described as a "platform for public discussion, debate and knowledge sharing" on urban poverty and the role of cities. She also headed the European parliamentary delegation that met with Hamas’s leadership to discuss the future of their relations with Europe. Short was a vocal critic of the war on Iraq and rendered her resignation from the government in protest of the Blair’s policies towards Iraq. She wrote a book entitled, Honourable Deception: New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power, giving an account of her career in New Labour, most notably her relationship with Prime Minister Tony Blair, the relationship between Blair and Gordon Brown and the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
