Symons was created a
Labour life peer as
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean,
of Vernham Dean in the County of Hampshire, on 7 October 1996. From May 1997 to June 1999, she took her first government post, serving as a junior Foreign Office Minister. From 1999 until 2001, she was
Minister of State for Defence Procurement and, from 2001 until 2003,
Minister of State for Trade. From 2001 until 2005, she was
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs with responsibility for the Middle East, International Security, Consular and Personal Affairs, and Deputy Leader of the
House of Lords. Symons was or remains a member of the
British-American Project (BAP). It has a membership of 600 leaders and opinion formers, drawn equally from both countries, according to
The Guardian, and holds an annual conference at which everything that is said is officially off-the-record. She also serves on the board of governors of the
Ditchley Foundation. In 2001, she married her long-standing partner, Phil Bassett, a former writer at
The Times. They have a son. In October 2002, Bassett was appointed to the Strategic Communications Unit in
10 Downing Street, leaving in September 2003 to become special adviser to
Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs. She is a Senior Network Member at the
European Leadership Network (ELN).
Corporate career Symons was not given a job in the re-shuffle after the general election of 5 May 2005, and became a
non-executive director of
British Airways. Symons sits on the board of trustees of the John Smith Memorial Trust, a
non governmental organisation set up in 1995 in memory of the late Labour party leader
John Smith. ==Conflict of interest allegations==