Kennedy had been a Member of Parliament since the 1992 general election, when she was elected for the Liverpool Broadgreen constituency. She served as a member of the social securityselect committee from 1992 to 1994, and in 1995 she was appointed as a Labour whip. Her constituency was abolished for the 1997 general election, but she was returned to Parliament for the new Liverpool Wavertree constituency. After Labour's victory in the 1997 election, she served as an assistant government whip until 1998 and as a government whip until 1999, sitting on the House of Commons administration select committee from 1997 until 1999. On 9 November 2009 she announced she would be standing down at the 2010general election. It was announced in January 2010 the Wavertree Labour Party had picked Luciana Berger as the candidate to succeed her. This selection caused some controversy because Berger had stayed at Kennedy's home for a period before the selection, a home Kennedy shares with her partner Peter Dowling, the local Labour Party's agent.
In government
Kennedy was then appointed as a junior minister in the Lord Chancellor's Department from 1999 until 2001, when she became a Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office with responsibility for security and the justice system. After the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly in October 2002, she also became responsible for education and employment in the province. In 2003, she was made a Privy Councillor. She transferred to the Department for Work and Pensions in 2004 and then to the Department of Health after the 2005 general election, remaining a Minister of State. She left the government on 5 May 2006 during a wide-ranging reshuffle. She was initially thought by journalists to have been sacked; however, she subsequently said she took the opportunity to resign from the government in light of concerns about the impact of the government's policies on the National Health Service. In Gordon Brown's first government since becoming Prime Minister, Kennedy was appointed as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, becoming the third ranked minister in the Treasury, taking on the ministerial responsibilities of the old Paymaster General, Dawn Primarolo. On 5 October 2008, Kennedy was promoted to Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with the portfolio of Farming and the Environment. She resigned that position in June 2009 in protest at Gordon Brown's Leadership.
Kennedy was elected to the post of Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner on 15 November 2012. She was re-elected in 2016.
Expenses row
In 2009 the Houses of Parliament started publishing MP expenses. Her partner Peter Dowling worked at her office handling research and parliamentary affairs, and was paid out of her parliamentary expenses.
Personal life
Jane married Malcolm Kennedy in 1977 in Knowsley; they divorced in 1998. They have two sons, Robert and Alan. She currently lives with her partner Peter Dowling.
