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Dawn Primarolo (born 2 May 1954 in London) is a British Labour Member of Parliament for Bristol South. She has been Paymaster General since 1999, and was previously Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

Schooled at the Thomas Bennett Comprehensive School in Sussex, she joined the Labour Party in 1973 and was first elected to Parliament at the 1987 general election, after her constituency party de-selected the sitting MP Michael Cocks.

At the time of her election, she was regarded as a hard left-winger and is still often referred to by the media as "Red Dawn", but she is now a New Labour loyalist and "absolutely loyal to New Labour" [1], leading Andrew Roth of The Guardian newspaper to say she has "changed from 'Red Dawn' to 'Rosy Pink'" [2]; as part of this change, she has moved from support of the CND, the rise of which originally encouraged her into politics, to voting for the renewal of Britain's Trident nuclear defence [3]. She is a former member of Avon County Council.

Despite campaigning against the first Gulf War in 1991, she voted strongly in favour of invading Iraq in 2003, and against any investigation into the invasion after it had taken place [4] [5]. On other 'key issues' (as described by TheyWorkForYou), she has voted in favour of ID cards and increased university tuition fees [6].

As Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo is responsible for the administration of the Tax Credits system, intended to provide working families with financial support. However, the administration of this system has received significant criticism, including allegations that some families have been left less well off as a result of Tax Credits[7]. In 2003, a Treasury select committee member accused her of "losing control of [her] department" [8] after it became known that Inland Revenue buildings under Primarolo's pervue had been sold to tax-haven companies [9]. This came shortly after she had "insisted ... the [Child tax credit] scheme was a "success"", despite Inland Revenue staff walking out in protest against the pressure they were being placed under [10] [11].

In 2005, PM Tony Blair was forced to apologise after a report by the Parliamentary Ombudsman that Primarolo had failed to give Parliament accurate information. Primarolo admitted at the same time that she had been fully aware "about the extent of the problems"[12].

She was responsible for introducing the controversial IR35 tax rules.

• Dawn Primarolo official site
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Dawn Primarolo MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Dawn Primarolo MP