Claire Margaret Ward (born 9 May 1972) is a British Labour Party politician who was elected Mayor of the East Midlands in May 2024.

[5][6] She then completed an MA in Britain and the European Union at Brunel University,[7] before qualifying as a solicitor at the College of Law in London.

[10][11] In 1990, she won the South East TUC Mike Perkins Memorial Award for Young Trade Unionists before being elected as the Youth Representative on Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) the following year.

[14][15][16] In the 2001 general election she retained her seat by 5,555 votes and was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Hutton.

[13][17] The increasing dominance of local politics in Watford Borough council by the Liberal Democrats, including the election of a Liberal Democrat mayor, led to speculation that Ward would find re-election extremely difficult; Ward even accused staff from the council of harassment during the 2005 general election campaign.

[18] However, she managed to hold off a strong Liberal Democrat challenge from Sal Brinton; despite a 12% swing against her, Ward held the seat with a majority of 1,148 votes (approximately 2.3%).

The Conservative candidate was narrowly pushed into third place, with 793 fewer votes than Brinton, making Watford a three-way marginal seat.

She also continues roles in the pharmacy sector with the Pharmacists Defence Association and as Chair of Sigma Pharmaceuticals Annual Conference.

She became a Non Executive Director of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in May 2013 and was appointed chair in October 2021.

'[39] When she was aged 28, Claire Ward met John Simpson, a plumber four years older than her, with his own business in Wembley, at a birthday party in Watford.