Glenda Jackson posthumously awarded freedom of Wirral

Glenda Jackson has been posthumously awarded the freedom of the borough where she was born.

The Birkenhead-born Oscar-winning actress, who was a Labour MP for 23 years, died in June at the age of 87.

Wirral Council unanimously voted to give her the Freedom of the Borough at a meeting on Monday.

The council's Labour leader Paul Stuart said her "success story" had inspired many people in the area, "myself included".

Conservative group leader Jeff Green added that it was "incredible to think she was born just around the corner" and had gone from "Birkenhead to Hollywood Boulevard".

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the honour was awarded following a unanimous recommendation by the council's regulatory committee.

Other recipients of the award include the late Paul O'Grady, the 97 victims of the Hillsborough disaster and Baron Frank Field of Birkenhead.

The honour was bestowed as a mural of the actress was painted on the side of a Birkenhead building.

The work by artist Adam Bresnen was also put up to coincide with the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

Jackson won two Oscars for best actress, first in 1970 for Women In Love and again three years later for A Touch Of Class.

She was later MP for Hampstead and Highgate in London from 1992 to 2015, serving as part of Tony Blair's government between 1997 and 1999.

After leaving politics, she returned to acting, winning a Bafta in 2019 for Elizabeth Is Missing, in which she portrayed a woman with dementia.

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