Download - House of Commons Women
Women in Power A-Z of Female Members of the
The House of Commons
Labour MPs
Diane Abbott
Diane Abbott was first elected to the House of Commons in 1987, making her the first black woman to sit in Parliament. She was appointed Shadow Public Health Minister in 2010, securing herself a position on the party front benches for the first time in her career. Abbott’s selection for this role came about partly as a result of her raised profile following the 2010 Labour Party leadership contest. She surprised the party by joining the race after criticising the apparent similarity of the existing white, male nominees. Prior to this, Abbott was best known as a left-‐wing backbencher, critical of numerous government policies. Rarely shying from controversy, Abbott aroused much criticism in 2003 when she decided to send her son to a fee-‐paying school despite having previously criticised colleagues who had chosen selective state schools for their children.
Abbott’s public profile has been further raised by her engagement with the media. She has appeared regularly on the political discussion programme This Week, alongside former Conservative minister Michael Portillo.
Before becoming an MP, Abbott was a journalist and race relations officer, working for Thames Television, TV-‐AM and the National Council for Civil Liberties. Abbott was born in 1953 and graduated from Cambridge University in 1976.
Heidi Alexander
Heidi Alexander was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as the MP for Lewisham East. She cites her interests as housing and local government, and currently sits on the Select Committee for Communities and Local Government.
Before entering parliament, Alexander spent six years as a Labour Councillor on Lewisham Council. Between 2006 and 2010, she was both Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Regeneration. During her time as a councillor, Alexander was also Director and Chair of Greater London Enterprise, and Director of Lewisham Schools for the Future. Until 2005 she worked as a parliamentary assistant to Joan Ruddock MP. She gained this position in 1999 after graduating from Durham University with a Masters in European Urban and Regional Change. Alexander was born in 1975.
Rushanara Ali
Rushanara Ali was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, becoming the first Bangladesh-‐born MP. Since 2010, she has been Shadow Minister for International Development.
Ali has received considerable media attention, singled out as an example of the new generation of politicians to watch. The Guardian, for example, named her as one of the most powerful Muslim women in Britain in 2009. Since 2005 she has been associate director of the Young Foundation and has chaired the Tower Hamlets Summer University, as well as sitting on the London Child Poverty Commission and various other public bodies. She is also a prolific writer, producing articles for various left-‐wing publications. Between 1999 and 2005, she worked for centre-‐left think-‐tank the Institute of Public Policy Research, and for both the Foreign and Home Office, on projects connected with race and discrimination. Before that, she worked for two years as a parliamentary assistant to former Labour MP Oona King. Ali graduated from Oxford University in 1996 with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
Margaret Beckett
Margaret Beckett was first elected to the House of Commons in 1974 as the MP for Lincoln, but lost her seat at the 1979 General Election. She was re-‐elected in Derby South in 1983 and has represented the constituency ever since. Beckett is a well-‐established Labour figure, and the only woman to have remained in Cabinet throughout the Blair years. Her long and varied career has included spells as the UK’s first female Foreign Secretary and as interim Leader of the Labour Party.
Beckett was last in Cabinet as Minister for Housing and Planning, an office she held between 2008 and 2009. Prior to that, she spent a year as Foreign Secretary (2006-‐2007) and five years as Secretary of State for the
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2001-‐06). Between 1998 and 2001 Beckett was both President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons. She spent the previous year as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Beckett held several frontbench posts during Labour’s lengthy period in opposition, spending time as Shadow President of the Board of Trade (1995-‐98) and as Shadow Health Secretary (1994-‐95). After John Smith’s death in 1994, Beckett was briefly made Party Leader, having been elected as Deputy Leader two years earlier. Beckett has also served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1989-‐92) and Shadow Social Security Minister (1984-‐89). She quickly ascended the party ranks during her first term in Parliament, securing the roles of Under-‐Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Science (1976-‐79) and Assistant Government Whip (1975-‐76).
Beckett is an industrial and academic metallurgist by training, and has a strong leftist union background. Her time outside parliament was spent working as an industrial policy researcher for the Labour Party (1970-‐74) and at Manchester University’s Department of Metallurgy (1966-‐70). Beckett was born in 1943.
Anne Begg
Anne Begg was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is the MP for Aberdeen South. From 2006 to 2010, she was Vice-‐chair of the Labour Party National Policy Forum. Begg has Gaucher’s disease, which causes her bones to be soft and prone to fracture, forcing her to use a wheelchair. Her experience of disability has shaped her political interests in welfare reform, social inclusion and genetics. She is currently Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.
Before entering parliament, Begg was an English and history teacher. She had to fight the Scottish General Teaching Council for three years before being allowed to teach, due to its ban on teachers in wheelchairs. In 1988 she was awarded the title of Disabled Scot of the Year in recognition of her work. Begg was born in 1955 and studied at Aberdeen University.
Luciana Berger
Luciana Berger was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as the MP for Liverpool Wavertree. She is currently Shadow Minister for Climate Change.
Before entering parliament, Berger was director of Labour Friends of Israel and sat on the steering group of the London Jewish Forum. She was also anti-‐racism co-‐ordinator of the National Union of Students, but resigned in 2005 claiming the union leadership was turning a blind eye to anti-‐semitism. Berger has worked in public affairs and consultancy, most recently for the NHS Confederation. Prior to this, she was a management consultant at Accenture, a position she gained after completing an Masters in government at the University of London in 2005. Berger was born in 1982.
Roberta Blackman-Woods
Roberta Blackman-‐Woods was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is the MP for the City of Durham. She is currently a Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government, having previously been a Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office. Blackman-‐Woods has been Parliamentary Private Secretary to several Ministers, most recently working with David Lammy whilst he was Minister for Universities, Business, Innovation and Skills (2008-‐10). During this time, Blackman-‐Woods was also Parliamentary assistant to Nick Brown, Minister for the North East. Prior to that, she was PPS to Des Browne as Secretary of State for Defence (2007-‐08) and to Hilary Armstrong, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (2006-‐07).
Blackman-‐Woods is an academic, specialising in labour studies and social policy. Before entering Parliament she spent five years as Professor of Social Policy at Northumbria University. Between 1995 and 2000, Blackman-‐Woods taught at the trade union run Ruskin College in Oxford. During this time she was elected to Oxford City Council, where she spent three years as head of policy in the Local Government Information Unit. Blackman-‐Woods has also taught at Ulster and Newcastle Universities, and between 1982 and 1985 sat on Newcastle City Council. She was born in 1957 and holds a PhD from Ulster University.
Hazel Blears
Hazel Blears was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 as MP for Salford. The boundaries of her constituency were changed before the 2010 election and she now represents Salford and Eccles. Blears has been subject to criticism in recent years, both over her decision to resign from the Cabinet on the eve of the 2009 local and European elections, and for her failure to pay capital gains tax on her second home. Before her shock exit, Blears spent two years as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Previously, she had been a Minister without Portfolio (2006-‐07) and had spent time at the Home Office, where her portfolio included crime reduction, policing and community safety (2003-‐06). Between 2001 and 2003 Blears was a junior Health Minister, and before that was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Alan Milburn whilst he was Chief Secretary at the Treasury (1999) and Health Minister (1998).
Before entering Parliament, Blears worked as a solicitor, largely for local authorities. She was a Salford councillor for eight years and a branch secretary of UNISON. Blears was born in 1956 and studied at Nottingham Trent University and Chester College of Law.
Lyn Brown
Lyn Brown was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for West Ham. She cites her political interests as poverty, housing, local government, sexual health and foreign affairs. She has been a party Whip since October 2010, and served as an Assistant Government Whip between 2009 and 2010. She spent the previous two years as Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovations, Universities and Skills (2007-‐09), and prior to that was PPS to Phil Woolas, Minister at the Department for Communities and Local Government (2006-‐07).
Before her election to Parliament, Brown worked in the local government and voluntary sector. She spent seventeen years on Newham Borough Council, where she was especially involved with cultural and leisure services. During this time, Brown was also equalities officer for the nearby London Borough of Waltham Forest. Brown was born in 1960 and has a degree in English and Religious Studies from Whitelands College, Roehampton.
Karen Buck
Karen Buck was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 as MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North. She moved constituency in 2010 and is now MP for Westminster North. Buck is a Shadow Minister for Education, having previously been a Shadow Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions. She cites her political interests as housing, urban regeneration, health care, welfare and asylum. Between 2008 and 2010, she served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tony McNulty, then Minister for London and, before that, was a Junior Minister at the Department for Transport (2005-‐06).
Before entering Parliament, Buck was a full time Labour Party worker. She was Campaign Strategy Co-‐ordinator between 1992 and 1997 and spent seven years as a Westminster Councillor (1990-‐97). She had previously spent several years working for Hackney Council as a public health and employment officer, and prior to that was a research and development worker for Outset, a charity specialising in employment for disabled people (1979-‐83). Buck was educated at the London School of Economics and has Masters degrees in both Economics and Social Policy. She was born in 1958.
Jenny Chapman
Jenny Chapman was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Darlington. She cites her political interests as children, families, employment, transport and the economy, and since 2011 has been Shadow Minister for Justice.
Before entering Parliament, Chapman was a local councillor (2007-‐10) and researcher to her predecessor as MP for Darlington, Alan Milburn. She has also worked as a prison psychologist, entering the profession after studying at Brunel and Durham Universities. Chapman was born in 1973.
Katy Clark
Katy Clark was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for North Ayrshire and Arran. She is Secretary of the Labour Civil Liberties Group and is especially interested in policy development, equality and human rights. She has positioned herself on the left-‐wing of the party and is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and the Scottish Labour Party Campaign for Socialism. She is currently a member of the Chairmen’s Panel and of the Select Committees for Environmental Audit and Business, Innovation and Skills.
Before entering Parliament, Clark spent seven years as a trade union legal officer for UNISON. Prior to this, she worked as a solicitor, having studied law at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Clark was born in 1967.
Ann Clwyd
Ann Clwyd was first elected to the House of Commons in a 1984 by-‐election and is MP for Cynon Valley. She cites her political interests as human rights, international development and trade and industry. Clwyd was Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party between 2005 and 2006, and Vice-‐Chair during the four preceding years. She was also a Special Envoy to Iraq during this time, appointed to the post in recognition of her long-‐held interest in Iraqi human rights issues. Clwyd has supported the war, her stance shaped by her chairmanship of CARDRI, a campaign against repression and for democratic rights in the country, and INDICT, an organisation which sought to bring Iraqi war criminals to trial. She has previously held frontbench positions as Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs (1994-‐95), Spokesperson for Employment (1993-‐94), Shadow Secretary of State for Wales (1992), Shadow Secretary of State for Overseas Development (1989-‐92) and Shadow Minister for Education and Women’s Rights (1987-‐88). She is a vocal left-‐winger and has won awards from Channel Four and the House Magazine for her campaigning.
Before entering parliament, Clywd worked as a journalist, and was Welsh correspondent for the Guardian and Observer newspapers between 1964 and 1979. Clywd was born in 1937 and holds a degree from the University of Bangor.
Ann Coffey
Ann Coffey was first elected to the House of Commons in 1992 and is MP for Stockport. She cites her political interests as children, health, education and community development. Coffey spent twelve years as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Alistair Darling, aiding him during his time as Chancellor (2007-‐10) and whilst he was at the Departments of Trade and Industry (2006-‐07), Transport (2002-‐06) and Work and Pensions (1998-‐2002). Coffey had previously acted as one of Tony Blair’s Parliamentary Private Secretaries. Prior to this, she was the Opposition Spokesperson on Health (1996-‐97) and a Whip (1995-‐96).
Before entering Parliament, Coffey was a social worker team leader with responsibility for adoption and fostering. She also spent eight years on Stockport Council, leading the Labour Group between 1988 and 1992. Coffey was born in 1946 and studied at London South Bank and Manchester Universities.
Yvette Cooper
Yvette Cooper was first elected in 1997 as MP for Pontefract and Castleford. The boundaries of her constituency were changed in 2010 and she is now MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford. Cooper has held several important Cabinet posts, and was tipped as a potential candidate for the party leadership. She chose not to stand, citing childcare commitments as the reason for her decision. Cooper is currently Shadow Home Secretary. From 2010 to 2011, she held two frontbench positions, serving as Shadow Foreign Secretary and Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities. Whilst in government, she was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2009-‐10). In 2008 she became the first woman to assume the role of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and during the previous year she worked as Minister for Housing and Planning (2005-‐08). Prior to this, Cooper was an Under-‐Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government (2003-‐05), and at the Department of Health (1999-‐2002).
Before entering parliament, Cooper was economics editor and columnist for the Independent. She has also been a policy adviser to John Smith, Gordon Brown and Bill Clinton, who she worked with during his 1992 presidential campaign. Cooper has studied at Oxford, Harvard and the London School of Economics. She was born in 1969.
Rosie Cooper
Rosie Cooper was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for West Lancashire. She cites her political interests as health, disability equality and housing, and is currently on the Select Committees for Health and for Administration. Cooper has spent several years as a Parliamentary Private Secretary, most recently aiding Ben Bradshaw at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (2009-‐10) and at the Department for Health (2007-‐09). Between 2006 and 2007, Cooper was PPS to Lord Rooker, Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Before entering Parliament, Cooper spent four years as a director at the Merseyside Centre for Deaf People. She had previously worked for the retailer Littlewoods. Cooper spent twenty-‐eight years as a Liverpool City Councillor, first gaining a seat in 1972. She was a Liberal Democrat until 2000, switching to Labour after becoming disillusioned with the way the Liberal Democrats exercised power in Liverpool. She was also the Lord Mayor of Liverpool between 1992 and 1993. Cooper was born in 1950 and attended the University of Liverpool.
Mary Creagh
Mary Creagh was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for Wakefield. She was made Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2010, after placing in the top twenty in Labour’s Shadow Cabinet elections. Prior to this, she briefly served as Shadow Health Minister and as an Assistant Whip (2009-‐10). She had previously been Parliamentary Private Secretary to Andy Burnham at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (2008-‐09), the Treasury (2007-‐08) and the Department of Health. During 2006, Creagh was PPS to Lord Warner, Minster of State at the Department of Health.
Prior to entering Parliament, Creagh was a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Cranfield School of Management (1997-‐2005), a position she took up after completing a Masters degree at the London School of Economics. She also spent seven years on Islington Council, leading the Labour Group between 2000 and 2004. Before that, she worked as a press officer for the London Enterprise Agency. Between 1991 and 1995, Creagh lived in Brussels, working for the Socialist group, as a research assistant to Stephen Hughes MEP, and as a press officer for the European Youth Forum. Creagh was born in 1967 and studied modern languages at Oxford University.
Stella Creasy
Stella Creasy was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Walthamstow. She is currently Shadow Minister for Crime Prevention.
Prior to entering Parliament, Creasy was Head of Public Affairs at the Scout Association and had been a member of Waltham Council for eight years. Before joining the Scout Association, she was deputy director at Involve, an organisation concerned with finding ways to revitalize British democracy. Creasy has also worked as a parliamentary researcher to Douglas Alexander MP, Charles Clarke MP and Ross Cranston MP. She was born in 1977 and holds a degree from Cambridge University and a Doctorate from the London School of Economics.
Margaret Curran
Margaret Curran was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as the MP for Glasgow East. She won the seat only two years after a by-‐election had wiped out Labour’s previously strong majority and returned an SNP candidate. Curran is currently Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, having previously been appointed to the shadow Department for Work and Pensions. She cites her policy interests as social inclusion, women’s issues, neighbourhood regeneration and housing.
Curran is also a member of the Scottish Parliament, and has represented the Glasgow Baillieston constituency for the last eleven years. She has held numerous frontbench positions whilst an MSP, most recently as Shadow Secretary for Health and Wellbeing (2007-‐08). Curran has previously been Shadow Secretary for Justice (2007), and Minister for Parliamentary Business (2004-‐07), for Communities (2003-‐04), and for Social Justice (2002-‐03). Between 1999 and 2002 she was Deputy Minister for Social Justice and Deputy Whip. Before becoming an MSP, Curran spent ten years as a lecturer in community education at Strathclyde University, and seven years as a welfare rights and community worker. She was born in 1958 and studied history at Glasgow University.
Gloria De Piero
Gloria De Piero was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Ashfield. She is currently Shadow Minister for Crime Prevention, having previously been appointed to the shadow Culture, Media and Sport team.
Prior to entering parliament, De Piero was well-‐known for her role as political correspondent on the morning television show, GMTV. Before joining GMTV, she was a researcher at both ITV and the BBC, working on The Politics Show, On the Record and Radio 4′s Westminster Hour. De Piero has a Masters from Birkbeck College and a degree from the University of Central England, where she was also president of the student union. She was born in 1972.
Gemma Doyle
Gemma Doyle was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for West Dunbartonshire. She is a shadow junior Defence Minister. Doyle’s other policy interests include employment, public services and the elderly.
Before entering Parliament, Doyle worked as a political adviser to the Scottish Labour MPs’ group, and as a conference manager at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.
Angela Eagle
Angela Eagle was first elected to the House of Commons in 1992 and is MP for Wallasey. Since 2011, she has been Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. In 2010, she was made Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, after coming third in Labour’s Shadow Cabinet elections. Eagle is also Vice-‐Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party. She has held numerous government positions in recent years, working at the Department for Work and Pensions as Minister for Pensions and the Ageing Society (2009-‐10) and at the Treasury as Exchequer Secretary (2007-‐09). Eagle spent the period between 2002 and 2007 on the backbenches. During the previous five years she worked as Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Home Office (2001-‐02), Department of Social Security (1998-‐2001) and Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997-‐98). Eagle was an Opposition Whip between 1996 and 97. She came out as a lesbian in 1997, the first female MP to do so since Maureen Colquhoun in the 1970s.
Between 1984 and 1992, Eagle worked as a press officer and researcher for the health services union COHSE. In 1991 she also chaired the National Conference of Labour Women. Eagle was born in 1961 and graduated from Oxford University in 1983.
Maria Eagle
Maria Eagle was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 as MP for Liverpool Garston. The boundaries of her constituency changed before the 2010 election, and Eagle is now MP for Garston and Halewood. She was made Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in 2010, after placing in the top twenty in Labour’s Shadow Cabinet election. Prior to this, Eagle briefly served as Shadow Solicitor General and Shadow Minister for Justice. She worked at the Ministry of Justice between 2007 and 2010, latterly as Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, and before that as a Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State. Prior to that, she was Under-‐Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office (2006-‐07), Department for Education and Skills (2005-‐06), and Department for Work and Pensions (2001-‐05). Between 1999 and 2001 she was Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Hutton at the Department of Health.
Before entering parliament, Eagle worked as a solicitor. She specialised in housing law, and came into conflict with numerous Liverpool councillors after encouraging her clients to sue the council over housing repairs. Eagle has also held several party posts, working as a campaign organiser, Constituency Labour Party Secretary and press officer. Eagle was born in 1961 and graduated from Oxford University in 1983.
Julie Elliott
Julie Elliott was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Sunderland Central. She cites her political interests as employment and skills, regeneration, health inequalities and education, and is currently a member of the Select Committee for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Elliott has worked for the GMB trade union since 1999, and retains responsibility for Policy, Media and Research. As a member of the Labour Party since 1984, Elliott has held office at branch, constituency and regional level. She is Chair of the Labour North Board and secretary/treasurer of the Northern Trade Union Liaison Organisation. Elliott was born in 1963 and holds a degree from Northumbria University.
Louise Ellman
Louise Ellman was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is MP for Liverpool Riverside. She is Chair of the Transport Select Committee and is interested in regional and local government, public services and the arts. Ellman is also heavily involved with the Labour Jewish Movement, and is currently Vice-‐Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.
Before entering Parliament, Ellman was a full time county council leader. She spent twenty seven years on Lancashire County Council, first taking the lead role in 1981. She is a strong supporter of regional government and a founder of the North-‐West Regional Association. Prior to becoming a full-‐time councillor, she worked in further education, lecturing for the Open University. Ellman was born in 1945 and studied at Hull and York Universities.
Natascha Engel
Natascha Engel was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for North East Derbyshire. She cites her political interests as youth policy, welfare rights, regeneration, pensions and sexual health. Engel has acted as Parliamentary Private Secretary to numerous ministers, most recently aiding John Denham in his role as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (2009). Before that, she worked for Liam Byrne, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (2008-‐09), and for Peter Hain, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2007-‐08). Engel also sits on the Board of Trustees of the UK Youth Parliament and is honorary president of the British Youth Council. In 2007, she won an ePolitix award for her advocacy of youth issues.
Before entering Parliament, Engel worked as a trade union organiser. She was ballot co-‐ordinator of the Trade Union Political Fund between 2002 and 2003 and Trade Union liaison officer for the Labour Party between 1997 and 2001. Engel also spent a year as Programme Director at the Smith Institute (2001-‐02) and has co-‐produced numerous leaflets on trade unionism. Prior to this, Engel worked as a translator, having studied languages and then translation at university. Engel was born in 1967.
Caroline Flint
Caroline Flint was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is MP for Don Valley. She is currently Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, having previously served as Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Flint spent the year prior to this on the backbenches, having resigned from government in 2009 after publicly accusing the Prime Minister of treating her as ‘female window dressing’. At the time of her departure, Flint was Europe Minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Previously, Flint had been Minister for Housing and Planning (2008), for Yorkshire and the Humber (2007-‐08), for Employment and Welfare Reform (2007-‐08), and for Public Health (2006-‐07). Between 2003 and 2005 she was a Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Department of Health (2005-‐07) and at the Home Office (2003-‐05). Prior to this, Flint was a Parliamentary Private Secretary, aiding John Reid between 2002 and 2003, whilst he was Party Chair and Leader of the Commons, and Peter Hain between 2001 and 2002, whilst he was at the Department of Trade and Industry and at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Before entering Parliament, Flint was a researcher and a political officer for the GMB union. She had previously worked in local government, spending four years at Lambeth Council and three at the Inner London Education Authority. Flint also spent a year at the National Union of Students, leading the Women’s Unit between 1988 and 1989. Flint was born in 1961 and studied at the University of East Anglia.
Yvonne Fovargue
Yvonne Fovargue was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Makerfield. She cites her political interests as the third sector, consumer credit, and debt and employment law, and is currently a Whip for the Labour Party.
Before entering parliament, Fovargue was Chief Executive of St. Helen’s Citizen’s Advice Bureaux. She held the post for eighteen years and between 2004 and 2010 balanced it with working on Warrington Borough Council. Prior to joining the CAB, Fovargue worked in the housing department of Manchester City Council. She was born in 1956 and studied at Leeds University.
Sheila Gilmore
Sheila Gilmore was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Edinburgh East. Her political interests include the minimum wage, local bus services and the elderly. She is currently a member of the Select Committees for Political and Constitutional Reform and Work and Pensions.
Before entering parliament, Gilmore worked as a councillor and solicitor. She was elected to Edinburgh City Council in 1991 and remained there for sixteen years, attaining the role of Convener for Housing in 1999. Whilst practising as a lawyer, Gilmore worked on legal aid cases, mainly focusing on family law. She also represented women in domestic violence cases and helped establish a Rape Crisis Centre in Edinburgh. Before qualifying as a solicitor, Gilmore briefly worked as a teacher. She was born in 1945 and has studied at Kent and Edinburgh Universities.
Pat Glass
Pat Glass was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for North West Durham. She is particularly interested in education policy and sits on the Education Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Glass was a government education advisor, working with various councils across the Yorkshire and Humber region. She is also currently a councillor, having been elected to Lanchestire Parish Council in 2007. Glass was born in 1957.
Mary Glindon
Mary Glindon was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for North Tyneside. She is currently a member of the Select Committee for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Before entering Parliament, Glindon worked as a councillor and public sector administrator. She was first elected to North Tyneside Council in 1995 and since then has served as Mayor (1999-‐2000) and Deputy Mayor (1998-‐99). Glindon is also a founding member and treasurer of Battle Hill Community Development Project. She was born in 1957 and has a sociology degree from Northumbria University.
Helen Goodman
Helen Goodman was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for Bishop Auckland. She is particularly interested in the environment, children’s issues and international development, and is currently a Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport. Before gaining this post, Goodman spent several months as a shadow Minister for Justice and prior to that as Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions. She secured promotion to this position in May 2010, after working as a Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions. Between 2008 and 2009, she was an Assistant Government Whip, and before that spent a year as Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. During 2007, Goodman was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Harriet Harman at the Ministry of Justice.
Prior to entering Parliament, Goodman worked in the charity sector, leading the National Association of Toy and Leisure Libraries between 2002 and 2005 and heading strategy at the Children’s Society from 1998 until 2002. She spent the previous twenty years as a civil servant at the Treasury, becoming head of the Strategy Unit in 1995. Her time at the Treasury included a period working in the office of the Czechoslovak Prime Minister in the immediate aftermath of the Velvet Revolution. Goodman briefly worked as a research assistant to the late Philip Whitehead MP, after graduating from Oxford University in 1979. She was born in 1958 .
Kate Green
Kate Green was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Stretford and Urmston. She cites her political interests as employment, children and families, social exclusion and poverty, and is currently Shadow Minister for the Equalities Office as well as a member of the Select Committee on Work and Pensions.
Before entering Parliament, Green worked in the charity sector, spending five years as chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, and four years as director of the National Council for One Parent Families (now Gingerbread). Between 1982 and 1999, Green worked for Barclays Bank, spending the last two years on secondment at the Home Office. She has also worked for numerous public bodies, chairing the London Child Poverty Commission (2006-‐09), sitting on the National Employment Panel (2001-‐07), and serving as a Magistrate in the City of London (1993-‐2007). Green was born in 1960 and studied at Edinburgh University.
Lilian Greenwood
Lilian Greenwood was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Nottingham South. Her political interests include employment rights and pensions, and she is currently a Shadow Minister for Transport.
Before entering Parliament, Greenwood worked for the public sector trade union UNISON. She spent seventeen years with UNISON, working as an organiser, campaigner and researcher. Prior to this, Greenwood was a researcher at the Local Authority Conditions of Service Advisory Board (1988-‐89) and at the Civil and Public Services Association (1989-‐92). Greenwood was born in 1966 and holds a degree from Cambridge University and a masters degree from London South Bank University.
Nia Griffith
Nia Griffith was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for Llanelli. She is currently a junior Shadow Minister for Wales, having served as junior Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2011. She cites her political interests as Europe, the environment, industry and community issues. She also holds a special interest in Wales (she is a native-‐Welsh speaker) and is a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. Prior to the last election, Griffith spent two years as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Harriet Harman as Minister for Women and Equality, and between 2007 and 2008 was PPS to Hilary Benn at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2007-‐08.
Before entering Parliament, Griffith was a teacher, spending eight years as head of modern languages at a Swansea comprehensive. Though most of Griffith’s career has been spent teaching, she worked as an education adviser and schools inspector between 1992 and 1997. She has long been an active member of the Labour Party, and served on Carmarthen Town Council from 1987 to 1999. Whilst on the council, she was elected Deputy Mayor (1998 -‐1999) and Sheriff (1997 -‐98). Griffith was born in 1956 and studied at Oxford University and University College of North Wales.
Harriet Harman
Harriet Harman was first elected to the House of Commons in a 1982 by-‐election as MP for Peckham. The boundaries of her constituency changed in 1997 and she is now MP for Camberwell and Peckham. Harman is a well-‐established Labour figure and a prominent advocate of gender equality. Her most recent success in furthering this agenda came with the passage of the 2010 Equality Act, which allows employers to discriminate in favour of female and ethnic minority job applicants. She is currently Deputy Leader, Party Chair and Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. As elected Deputy Leader (since 2007), she also led the party during the leadership contest following Brown’s resignation. Harman has occupied numerous frontbench posts, for the last three years acting as Shadow Secretary of State for International Developemtn (2010-‐11) and as both Minister for Women and Equality and Leader of the House of Commons (2007-‐10). Prior to this, she was Minister for Justice at the Department for Constitutional Affairs (2005-‐07) and Solicitor General (2001-‐05). Harman spent 1998 to 2001 on the backbenches, after being pushed out of her position as Social Security Secretary and Minister for Women after just a year on the job. Until this point, Harman had rapidly ascended the party ranks, working as Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security (1996-‐97), Health (1995-‐96) and Employment (1994-‐95), and as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1992-‐94), Spokesperson for Health (1987-‐92), and Shadow Minister for Social Services (1984-‐87).
Before entering Parliament, Harman spent four years as a legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty). During this time she fought numerous high-‐profile cases, with one on behalf of a prisoner resulting in Harman’s conviction for contempt of court; the case was later overturned after an appeal to the European Court on Human Rights. Between 1974 and 1978 Harman worked for Brent Law Centre, gaining the job after graduating from York University. Harman was born in 1950.
Meg Hillier
Meg Hillier was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch. From 2010 to 2011, she served as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, gaining the post after placing in the top twenty in the 2010 Shadow Cabinet elections. She had previously served as Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Home Office (2007-‐10) and as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ruth Kelly as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (2006-‐07).
Before entering Parliament, Hillier was a journalist and councillor. Between 2000 and 2004 she worked on the London Assembly, chairing the culture, sport and tourism committee as well as the Assembly’s 2000 inquiry into housing for key workers. Hillier also spent eight years on Islington Council (1994-‐2002), including a period as Mayor (1998-‐99). She worked as a journalist during this time, going freelance in 1998, having worked for Housing Today for the previous four years. Earlier jobs include a year as public relations officer for the Newlon Housing Group and a brief period at the South Yorkshire Times. Hillier was born in 1969 and graduated from Oxford University in 1990.
Julie Hilling
Julie Hilling was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Bolton West. Her chief policy interests are youth services, education and regional development. She is currently an Opposition Whip and a member of the Select Committee for Transport.
Prior to becoming an MP, Hilling was the senior regional organiser for the Transport Salaried Staffs Association and Vice-‐Chair of the Bolton West constituency party. Between 1991 and 1999, she was the National President of the Community and Youth Workers Union and before that was a youth work manager for Wigan Council. Hilling was educated at the University of Nottingham and Manchester Metropolitan University.
Margaret Hodge
Margaret Hodge was first elected to the House of Commons in 1994 and is MP for Barking. She is currently a member of the Public Account Commission. She cites her political interests as education, the reform of public services, democratic renewal, and gender equality, and in 2010 served as Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport. Before gaining this position, Hodge was a Minister in the same department, holding responsibility for culture and tourism (2007-‐10). During the previous year, she was Minister for Industry and the Regions, and prior to that was a Minister at the Department for Work and Pensions. Between 2003 and 2005 Hodge was Minister for Children, Young People and Families, and from 2001 to 2003, she held the Lifelong Learning and Higher Education portfolio. For three years beforehand, Margaret was Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education and Employment, where her responsibilities included child care, nursery education, and equal opportunities in employment. Before entering government in 1998 Hodge held a range of offices including Chair of the London Labour Group, Joint Chair of the Education and Employment Select Committee and Chair of Labour’s Task Force on Under-‐5s policy.
Before becoming an MP, Hodge worked for two years as a public sector consultant with Price Waterhouse Coopers. She had previously spent more than twenty years on Islington Council, leading it between 1982 and 1992. During this time, she was well-‐known for her avowedly left-‐wing convictions and assertive leadership manner. Prior to entering politics, Hodge spent several years caring for her children, and between 1966 and 1973 was a teacher and market-‐researcher. She was born in 1944 and educated at the London School of Economics.
Sharon Hodgson
Sharon Hodgson was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 as the MP for Gateshead East and Washington West. Her constituency boundaries changed in 2010 and she is now MP for Washington and Sunderland West. She was appointed as a junior shadow Education Minister in 2010, gaining the post after spending a year as a Whip. Hodgson is also a member of the Christian Labour Movement and a columnist for its journal. Before being made a Whip in 2009, Hodgson spent three years as a Parliamentary Private Secretary, working for Dawn Primarolo at the Department of Health (2008-‐09), Bob Ainsworth at the Ministry of Defence (2007-‐08) and Liam Byrne at the Home Office (2006-‐07).
Prior to entering Parliament, Hodgson worked for the trade union UNISON (2002 – 05), and as a local and regional Labour Party organiser (1999 – 2002). She also spent a year as an administrator for an education charity. Hodgson studied English at Newcastle College as a mature student (1994 – 97), having spent the previous twelve years as a book-‐keeper and administrator. She was born in 1966.
Kate Hoey
Kate Hoey was first elected to the House of Commons in a 1989 by-‐election and is MP for Vauxhall. She cites her political interests as foreign affairs, housing and the countryside, and is well-‐known for her enthusiasm for sport, particularly her defence of fox-‐hunting and membership of the Countryside Alliance. She was last in government in 2001 as Minister for Sport, a post she gained in 1999. Prior to this, Hoey spent a year at the Home Office as Under-‐Secretary of State for the Metropolitan Police, European Union and Judicial Co-‐operation, and a year as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Frank Field as Minister for Welfare Reform. Earlier in her Commons career, Hoey was Opposition Spokesperson for the Citizen’s Charter and Women (1992-‐93).
Before entering Parliament, Hoey worked as an educational adviser to Arsenal Football Club (1985-‐89), having spent thirteen years teaching in London colleges. She has an economics degree from London Metropolitan University (1968), which she gained after first studying teaching at the Ulster College of Physical Education (1964). During this time, she was unusual in holding Ulster Unionist convictions whilst also being a member of the International Marxist Group. Hoey was born in 1946.
Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson was first elected to the House of Commons in 1992 as MP for Hamstead and Highgate. Her constituency boundaries changed in 2010 and she is now MP for Hamstead and Kilburn. She cites her political interests as overseas aid and development, the environment and housing. Her interest in the latter issue led to her appointment as a member of the Greater London Assembly advisory cabinet for homelessness in 2000, a position she retained for four years. For much of her time in the Commons, Jackson has been on the backbenches, having resigned from government in 1999. She had previously spent two years as Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, and a year as Opposition Spokesperson on Transport. She is currently a member of the Select Committee for Work and Pensions.
Jackson is perhaps best known for her pre-‐parliamentary career as an actor. Between 1963 and 1994 she featured in dozens of films, plays and television dramas, winning Oscars for her roles in Women in Love (1969) and A Touch of Class (1973). Jackson rose to fame after training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Before embarking on her acting career she worked at Boots, having left school at fifteen with no qualifications. Jackson was born in 1936.
Siân James
Siân James was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for Swansea East. Her main policy interests are social exclusion, public transport and issues affecting women and children. James was a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee from 2005 to 2010 as well as a member of the Justice Select Committee from 2006 to 2011. She also spent a year as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gareth Thomas, then Minister of State at the Department for International Development (2008-‐09).
Before entering Parliament, James spent two years as Director of Welsh Women’s Aid. She had previously occupied public affairs positions at the Lobbyist Association of Train Operating Companies (1999-‐2003), Securicor (1998-‐99), the National Trust (1994-‐98) and Save the Children (1991-‐94). James also spent a year as field officer for the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs (1990-‐91), a role she secured after completing a Welsh degree as a mature student. She decided to go to university after her participation in the 1984-‐85 miner’s strike; James describes the experience as transformative, enabling her to find her political instincts and gain the confidence to enter the workforce. She was born in 1959.
Cathie Jamieson
Cathie Jamieson was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun. She is currently Shadow Economic Secretary and cites her political interests as the co-‐operative movement, voluntary sector, workers’ rights, children and criminal justice.
Jamieson has also been a Member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999. She stepped down from the Shadow Cabinet in 2009 to seek selection for her current Commons seat, but before then was Shadow Secretary for Housing and Regeneration (2009) and for Health and Wellbeing (2008-‐09), and Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party (2000-‐08). During 2007, Jamieson was briefly Shadow First Minister and Scottish Labour Leader, standing in following the resignation of Jack McDonnell. She held the Parliamentary Business portfolio at the time. Before Labour entered Opposition in 2007, Jamieson was Minister for Justice (2003-‐07), and for Education and Young People (2001-‐03).
Prior to gaining office, Jamieson occupied various party positions at local branch and constituency level. She was also involved in social care, latterly as Principal Officer of Who Cares? Scotland, an advocacy organisation for children and young people in residential care. Before her appointment to this role in 1992, Jamieson worked on several front-‐line social work teams and specialist projects for young people in trouble. She was born in 1956 and studied art at undergraduate and postgraduate level, before undertaking a social work qualification at Glasgow University.
Diana Johnson
Diana Johnson was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 as MP for Hull North. Her constituency boundaries changed in 2010 and she is now MP for Kingston upon Hull North. Johnson was made a Shadow Minister for Crime and Security in 2011, having previously been a Shadow Minister for the Home Office from 2010 to 2011 and a Shadow Minister for Health in 2010. Before gaining this promotion, Johnson was Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State for Schools (2009-‐10) and prior to that was Assistant Government Whip (2007-‐09). Until 2007 she worked as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Stephen Timms, aiding him at the Treasury (2006-‐07) and the Department for Work and Pensions (2005-‐06). She gained this position after just six months in the Commons.
Before entering Parliament, Johnson worked as a barrister and local councillor. Between 2003 and 2004 she was on the Greater London Assembly, where she was deputy chairwoman of the Public Services Committee and a member of the Metropolitan Police Committee. From 1994 to 2002, Johnson served on Tower Hamlets Council, chairing social services between 1997 and 2000. During this time Johnson also practised law, working as a National Officer for the FDA Trade Union (2002-‐03), and for various community law centres across London (1991 – 2002). She managed to combine this with additional work as a non-‐executive director of Tower Hamlets PCT and Newham Healthcare Trust. Johnson was born in 1966 and educated at Queen Mary College, London University.
Helen Jones
Helen Jones was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is MP for Warrington North. She is currently Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government. From 2010 to 2011, she was Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, having been appointed to the role in October 2010 after spending several months as Shadow Minister for Justice. Before gaining promotion to the Justice Department, Jones was a Government Whip (2009-‐10) and an Assistant Government Whip (2008-‐09). Between 2007 and 2008 she was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dawn Primarolo, then Minister of State at the Department of Health. Whilst on the backbenches, Jones served on numerous Select Committees, including Education and Employment (1999-‐2001 and 2003-‐07), Public Administration (1998-‐2000) and Catering (1997-‐98).
Prior to entering Parliament, Jones was a local councillor and solicitor. She served on Chester City Council between 1984 and 1991, contesting several European and Westminster seats during this time. As a lawyer, Jones specialised in personal and industrial injuries. She qualified as a mature student, having previously worked as a justice and peace officer for the Liverpool Archdiocese, as a development officer for MIND and as an English teacher. Jones was born in 1954 and studied at London, Liverpool and Manchester Metropolitan Universities.
Susan Elan Jones
Susan Elan Jones was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Clywd South. She is particularly interested in the voluntary and community sectors, rural communities, job creation and the Welsh language, and is a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. She is also an Opposition Whip.
Before entering Parliament, Jones was a local councillor and charity fundraiser. She spent three years on Southwark Council, the latter two years as deputy opposition leader (2007 – 09). During this time she was also a fundraising executive for Housing Justice (2005 – 05). Prior to this, she worked for the Christian charities Caris Haringey (2002-‐05) and USPG (1997-‐2002), and for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign (1995-‐96). Jones started her career as an English teacher, spending several years in Japan (1990 – 94). She was born in 1968 and educated at Bristol and Cardiff Universities.
Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell was first elected to the House of Commons in 1992 and is MP for West Dulwich and Norwood. She is a well-‐established Labour figure and is particularly associated with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Jowell placed in the top twenty in Labour’s 2010 Shadow Cabinet elections, retaining the Olympics portfolio – which she has held since 2005 – as a result. She was Minister for the Cabinet Office during Labour’s last year in government, and for the three years previously was Paymaster General. From 2001 to 2007 she was Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, between 2005 and 2006 holding additional responsibility as Minister for Women. Before gaining promotion to the Cabinet, Jowell was Minister of State for Women (1999-‐2001), Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities (1999-‐2001) and Public Health (1997-‐99). During her first term in Parliament, she was Opposition Spokesperson for Health (1994-‐97) and Women (1995-‐96), and Opposition Whip (1994-‐95).
Jowell has extensive experience of child and community care work, and before entering Parliament led the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Community Care Programme (1990-‐92) and Birmingham’s community care special action project (1987-‐90). During this time, she was also a senior visiting research fellow at the King’s Fund Institute and Policy Studies Institute. Between 1974 and 1986 Jowell was assistant director at the mental health charity MIND, a position she gained after spending five years as a psychiatric social worker and child care officer. Jowell was born in 1946 and studied at Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Goldsmiths universities.
Barbara Keeley
Barbara Keeley was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 as MP for Worsley. Her constituency boundaries changed in 2010 and she is now MP for Worsley and Eccles South. Keeley is currently Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. Prior to this, she was appointed to the shadow Communities and Local Government team in 2010. Her other policy interests include equality, health, carers and regeneration. Before gaining her junior ministerial role, Keeley was Deputy Leader of the Commons in 2009 and, before that, an Assistant Government Whip (2008-‐09). She was previously a Parliamentary Private Secretary, aiding Harriet Harman as Minister for Women and Equality (2007-‐08) and Jim Murphy MP at the Department of Work and Pensions (2006–07). As a backbench MP, Keeley was active in promoting better support for carers, and in June 2007 was asked to lead Labour’s manifesto work on social care.
Before entering Parliament, Keeley was a consultant to The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, researching carers’ issues, particularly those related to primary health care. Between 1995 and 2004 she worked on Trafford Council, serving as a Cabinet member for education, and for children and young people’s services. Keeley’s early career was spent in the information technology industry. She was born in 1952 and studied at the University of Salford.
Liz Kendall
Liz Kendall was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Leicester West. She is currently a shadow junior Health Minister. Kendall’s other main policy interests are employment and care for the elderly.
Before entering Parliament, Kendall was a social policy consultant, working as a special advisor to both Patricia Hewitt and Harriet Harman, and as a researcher for several think-‐tanks. She has been director of the Ambulance Service Network and the Maternity Alliance, and an associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research. At IPPR, Kendall ran the Institute’s programme of work on health, social care and children’s early years. She has also been a research fellow for the King’s Fund’s Public Health Trust and has authored numerous publications, mainly relating to health and social welfare. She was born in 1971 and educated at Cambridge University.
Fiona Mactaggart
Fiona Mactaggart was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is MP for Slough. From 2010 to 2011, she served in Yvette Cooper’s shadow Women and Equalities team. Her additional policy interests are human rights, civil liberties, education and the arts. Mactaggart was last in government in 2006 as a Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Home Office, holding responsibility for Offender Management and Criminal Justice (2005-‐06) and for Race Equality, Community Policy and Civil Renewal (2003-‐05). Before entering the Home Office, Mactaggart was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chris Smith at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (1997-‐2001).
Prior to entering Parliament, Mactaggart spent five years as a Lecturer at the Institute of Education and as Chair of Liberty. Between 1987 and 1992 she was a primary school teacher in Peckham, balancing this with a position on Wandsworth Council (1988-‐90). Mactaggart had previously been General Secretary of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (1982-‐87) and press and public relations officer for the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (1981). She gained her first real taste of politics between 1978 and 1981, whilst Vice-‐President and National Secretary of the National Union of Students. Mactaggart was born in 1953 and studied at Kings College London.
Shabana Mahmood
Shabana Mahmood was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Birmingham Ladywood. She was appointed to the shadow team for Business, Innovation and Skills in 2011.
Before entering Parliament, Mahmood was a practising barrister for the law firm Berrymans Lace Mawer. She studied at Oxford University.
Kerry McCarthy
Kerry McCarthy was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for Bristol East. Her policy interests include economic policy, international trade, and community cohesion, and she is also well known for her enthusiasm for social media. She is currently a junior Shadow Minister for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as of 2011. Prior to this, she worked for the shadow Treasury team and was a junior minister in the shadow Work and Pensions Department, with responsibility for disability issues. Before gaining promotion to this position in 2010, McCarthy spent a year as a Junior Whip. Prior to this, she worked as a Parliamentary Private Secretary, aiding Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development (2007–09) and Rosie Winterton, Minister for Health Services (2007). During her first two years in the Commons, McCarthy was a member of the Treasury Select Committee.
Before being elected to Parliament, McCarthy was Head of Public Policy at a consultancy specialising in transport issues (2004-‐05) and regional advisor for the Britain in Europe campaign (2002-‐04). Prior to this, she was a solicitor, working for a wide range of employers including the Labour Party (2001), Merill Lynch (1996-‐99), Abbey National (1994-‐96) and Wilde Sapte (1992-‐94). McCarthy was active in the Party during this time, sitting on the National Policy Forum and Brown’s economy, welfare and work policy commission (1998-‐2005). She was also a Luton Borough councillor for five years, chairing the housing committee and directing the local authority-‐owned Luton Airport (1995-‐96, 1999-‐2003). Before qualifying as a solicitor in 1992, McCarthy spent six years as a legal assistant. She was born in 1965 and studied at Liverpool University.
Siobhain McDonagh
Siobhain McDonagh was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is MP for Mitcham and Morden. She cites her political interests as health, housing and welfare reform, and is currently a member of the Select Committee for Education. She worked as an Assistant Government Whip between 2007 and 2008, but was sacked after calling for a challenge to Brown’s leadership. Before becoming a Whip, McDonagh was a Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Reid as Home Secretary (2006-‐07) and as Secretary of State for Defence (2005-‐06).
Before entering Parliament, McDonagh worked for various housing organisations and as a local councillor. She spent fifteen years on Merton Council (1982-‐97), chairing the Housing Committee between 1990 and 1995. During this time, she also worked as a Development co-‐ordinator for Battersea Church Housing Trust (1988-‐97), and as a housing advisor (1983–86). She began her career as clerical officer for the Department of Health and Social Security (1981-‐83). McDonagh was born in 1960 and studied at the University of Essex.
Alison McGovern
Alison McGovern was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Wirral South. She cites her political interests as employment, local regeneration, and education and skills. McGovern was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gordon Brown in 2010 and currently sits on the Select Committes for International Development and for Works of Art.
Before entering Parliament, McGovern worked in public affairs and as a local councillor. She was elected to Southwark Council in 2006, later becoming Deputy Leader of the Labour Group. During this time, she was also a public affairs manager for The Art Fund (2008-‐09) and Network Rail (2006-‐08). She had previously worked as a researcher in the House of Commons (2002-‐06), gaining the position after graduating from University College, London. McGovern was born in 1980.
Anne McGuire
Anne McGuire was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is MP for Stirling. She cites her political interests as the EU, urban regeneration, and rural development, and is currently Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions. She was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ed Miliband after his victory in the 2010 Labour leadership election and prior to this, was last in government as Minister for Disabled People at the Department for Work and Pensions (2005-‐08). Prior to this, McGuire was Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Scotland Office (2002-‐05). She had previously worked as a Whip (2001-‐02) and as an Assistant Whip (1998-‐2001). McGuire became a Parliamentary Private Secretary soon after her election, aiding Donald Dewar as Secretary of State for Scotland between 1997 and 1998.
Before entering Parliament, McGuire was Deputy Director of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (1993-‐97). She had spent the previous seven years as a development worker and senior manager of Community Service Volunteers. During this time, McGuire was heavily involved in Party politics and union affairs, becoming chairwoman of the Scottish Labour Party in 1992 and serving on the National Executive of the GMB from 1987 to 1991. Prior to this, she worked as a teacher (1982-‐84) and served on Strathclyde Regional Council (1980-‐82). She was born in 1949 and studied at Glasgow University and Notre Dame College of Education.
Ann McKechin
Ann McKechin was first elected to the House of Commons in 2001 as MP for Glasgow Maryhill. Her constituency boundaries changed in 2005 and she has since been MP for Glasgow North. She is currently a member of the Select Committee for Business, Innovation and Skills. Prior to this, she served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 2010 to 2011, and was a member of the Select Committee on International Development, a policy area she has had a long-‐standing interest in. Before being promoted in 2010, McKechin spent two years as Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Scotland Office. She has previously been a Parliamentary Private Secretary, aiding Jacqui Smith at the Department for Education and Skills and Department of Trade and Industry (2005).
Prior to entering Parliament, McKechin was a solicitor and local party activist. She spent fourteen years with the Glasgow law firm Pacitti Jones, where she was made partner in 1990. During this time she held several positions in the Glasgow Kelvin Labour Party, including women’s officer (2000-‐01) and constituency secretary (1995-‐98). McKechin was born in 1962 and studied at the University of Strathclyde.
Catherine McKinnell
Catherine McKinnell was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Newcastle Upon Tyne North. She is currently Shadow Exchequer Secretary, having previously served as Shadow Minister for Educaton (2011-‐12) and Shadow Solicitor-‐General (2010-‐11).
Before entering Parliament, McKinnell worked for a large Newcastle law firm specialising in employment law. She was born in 1966 and studied history and politics at Edinburgh University.
Madeleine Moon
Madeleine Moon was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 as MP for Bridgend. Her policy interests include education, policing, prison reform, health and social care, and she is currently a member of the Defence Select Committee. Prior to this, Moon worked as a Parliamentary Private Secretary, aiding Lord Hunt at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (2009-‐10) and Jim Knight at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (2007-‐08).
Before entering Parliament, Moon was a local government health and welfare officer. She worked for the Welsh Assembly’s Care Standards Inspectorate between 2003 and 2005, and before that was a senior social worker in Swansea (1996-‐2002). Moon has also spent many years as a local councillor, serving on Bridgend Borough Council from 1991 to 2004, and on Porthcawl Town Council between 1990 and 2000, a period which included two stints as Town Mayor (1992-‐93, 1995-‐96). Moon began her social work career in 1980 in Glamorgan, after gaining a diploma from Cardiff University. She was born in 1950.
Jessica Morden
Jessica Morden was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for Newport East. She cites her political interests as anti-‐social behaviour and electoral issues, and is a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. She is currently Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Owen Smith. Prior to this, she was PPS to the Rt Hon Peter Hain in his role as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales and Secretary of State for Wales from 2007 to 2012. She also served Paul Murphy when he assumed this role for a brief period from 2008 to 2009.
Prior to entering Parliament, Morden was General Secretary of the Welsh Labour Party. Before gaining the post in 1999 she worked for the MPs Huw Edwards and Llew Smith (1991-‐95). She was born in 1968 and studied history at Birmingham University.
Meg Munn
Meg Munn was first elected to the House of Commons in 2001 and is MP for Sheffield Healey. She cites her political interests as social welfare, co-‐operative issues, European affairs and small businesses, and is elected Chair of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. Munn has held several positions in government, most recently as Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2007-‐08). Before this, she was a junior minister at the Department for Communities and Local Government (2006-‐07) and at the Department of Trade and Industry (2005-‐06). Between 2003 and 2005, Munn was a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Education and Skills.
Prior to entering Parliament, Munn worked in local government, latterly as Assistant Director of York Council. Before gaining this post in 1999 she led children’s services on Wakefield Metropolitan District Council (1996-‐99) and was a district manager on Barnsley Metropolitan Council (1992-‐96). Munn had previously worked as a social worker in Nottingham, where she also served on the City council between 1987 and 1991. She began her social work career in Berkshire in 1981, after studying at the Universities of York and Nottingham. Munn was born in 1959.
Lisa Nandy
Lisa Nandy was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Wigan. She is currently Shadow Children’s Minister, with responsibility for safeguarding children in care and adoption. Prior to this, she was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell as Shadow Minister for London and the Olympics. Her policy interests include housing, poverty and children.
Prior to entering Parliament, Nandy worked in the charity sector and as a local councillor. Between 2005 and 2010 she was a senior policy advisor at The Children’s Society, for the latter four years balancing this with work on Hammersmith and Fulham Council. Before gaining her position at The Children’s Society, Nandy spent two years at the homelessness charity Centrepoint. She began her career as a parliamentary researcher and caseworker for Labour MP Neil Gerrard. Nandy was born in 1979 and studied at Newcastle University and the University of London.
Pamela Nash
Pamela Nash was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Airdrie and Shotts. She is currently Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Vernon Coaker. Prior to this, she was PPS to Margaret Curran, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, from 2011 to 2012. During 2011, she served Ann McKechin, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, and Shaun Woodward, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. She is a member of the Select Committees for Science and Technology and for Scottish Affairs.
Before entering Parliament, Nash worked as a researcher for John Reid, the previous holder of her seat. She was born in 1984 and studied at Glasgow University.
Fiona O’Donnell
Fiona O’Donnell was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for East Lothian. Her policy interests include education, careers and social inclusion. From October 2011 to June 2012, she served as Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisheries under Ed Miliband. She currently sits on the International Development Committee. During her time in Parliament, she has also served as a member of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee and as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Shadow Secretary of State for Health, John Healey.
Before entering Parliament, O’Donnell was a campaigner and development officer with the Scottish Labour Party. She had previously worked in the voluntary sector, where she was especially involved with children with behavioural difficulties, and adults with mental health problems. She was born in 1960.
Chi Onwurah
Chi Onwurah was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Newcastle Central. Her policy interests include education, technology, manufacturing and international development, and she is currently a Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Before entering Parliament, Onwurah worked in telecommunications, most recently as head of telecoms technology at OFCOM. She had previously been a partner in an international telecommunications consultancy (2001-‐04) and a director of product strategy and market development at several other firms. She began her career in 1987 with the telecommunications firm Nortel. She was born in 1965 and holds a degree from Imperial College London and an MBA from Manchester Business School.
Sandra Osborne
Sandra Osborne was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 as MP for Ayr. Her constituency boundaries changed in 2005 and she is now MP for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock. In January 2011, she was appointed by the Speaker to the Panel of Chairs, and she currently sits on the Select Committees for Defence and for European Scrutiny. During her time in Parliament, she has also served on the select committees for Information, Scottish Affairs, European Scrutiny, Foreign Affairs, Defence and the Armed Forces Bill. Osborne was a Parliamentary Private Secretary for several years but stepped down in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. She had previously been PPS to Helen Liddell, Secretary of State for Scotland (2002-‐03), and to George Foulkes and Brian Wilson, successive Ministers of State at the Scotland Office (1999-‐2002).
Before entering Parliament, Osborne worked for Kilmarnock Women’s Aid. Her work with abused women earned her a place among the finalists of the 1997 Scottish Woman of the Year Awards. Between 1990 and 97 Osborne was also a local councillor, for the latter two years serving as a convener of housing and social services. She studied at Strathclyde University during this time, gaining a Masters in Equality and Discrimination in 1992. Osborne was born in 1956.
Teresa Pearce
Teresa Pearce was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Erith and Thamesmead. She is currently a member of the Select Committee for Work and Pensions and of the Treasury Select Committee. Her main policy interests are tax reform and children in care.
Before joining Parliament, she worked for the Inland Revenue and as a Senior Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers specializing in tax investigations. She has extensive knowledge of the UK tax system and is an expert on the National Minimum Wage. She also worked as a local councillor for Erith and as a school governor for a primary school and a grammar school in her area.
Bridget Phillipson
Bridget Phillipson was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Houghton and Sunderland South. She is currently a member on the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jim Murphy, as Shadow Secretary of Defence. She also serves on the Select Committee for Home Affairs. Her policy interests include housing, the armed forces, children, and pensioner poverty.
Before entering Parliament, Phillipson worked for a local charity, managing a refuge for women and children fleeing domestic violence. She had previously worked on Sunderland City Council for two years. Phillipson joined the council in 2005, after graduating from Oxford University where she was chair of the Labour Club. She was born in 1983.
Dawn Primarolo
Dawn Primarolo was first elected to the House of Commons in 1987 as MP for Bristol South. She has occupied numerous government posts and is currently Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker o f the House of Commons. Prior to this, she spent a year as Minister of State at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (2009-‐10), and two years as Minister for Public Health (2007-‐09). Much of Primarolo’s earlier parliamentary career was spent at the Treasury, where she was Paymaster General (1999-‐2007) and Financial Secretary (1997-‐99). By the time Labour entered government in 1997, Primarolo had already carved out a career on the frontbenches, acting as Opposition Spokesperson for both the Treasury and Economic Affairs (1994 and 97) and Health (1992 and 94). Formerly known as ‘Red Dawn’, she joined the Commons as a staunch left-‐winger and member of the Socialist Campaign Group.
Before entering Parliament, Primarolo was a local councillor, political activist and PhD student. She served on Avon County Council between 1985 and 1987, and prior to that worked as a secretary and book-‐keeper. She began her career in 1972 as an advisor at East London Law Centre. She was born in 1954 and studied at the University of West England.
Yasmin Qureshi
Yasmin Qureshi was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Bolton East South East. Her policy interests include crime, education and young people, and she is a member of the Justice Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Qureshi was a practising barrister. She has had a varied legal career, in recent years acting as a human rights advisor to Ken Livingstone (2004-‐08) and pursuing cases on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service. Prior to this, Qureshi was part of the UN mission to Kosovo, directing the department of Judicial Administration (2001-‐02) and leading the mission’s Criminal Legal Section (2000-‐01). She began her career at the bar in 1987 as a Crown Prosecutor, having completed a pupillage over the course of the previous two years. Qureshi was born in 1963 and studied at London Southbank University and University College London.
Rachel Reeves
Rachel Reeves was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Leeds West. She is currently Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, having previously served as Shadow Pensions Minister from October 2010 to October 2011. Her policy interests include education, the economy and foreign affairs.
Prior to entering Parliament, Reeves was an economic analyst at the Halifax Bank of Scotland (2006-‐10). During this time, she established herself as a voice of economic expertise, producing several important pamphlets and articles on the future of financial markets. Before joining Halifax, Reeves worked for the Bank of England (2004-‐06, 2000-‐02) and at the British Embassy in Washington (2002-‐03). She was born in 1979 and studied at Oxford University and the London School of Economics.
Emma Reynolds
Emma Reynolds was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Wolverhampton North East. She is currently junior Shadow Minister for Europe. Since joining Parliament, she has also served on the Select Committees for Foreign Affairs and Arms Export Controls. Her other policy interests include public services, the economy and manufacturing.
Reynolds worked as a public affairs consultant between 2009-‐10, going part-‐time to enable her to concentrate on her election campaign. Before her selection, Reynolds was a Special Advisor to Geoff Hoon MP, supporting him during his time as Chief-‐Whip (2007-‐08) and as Minister for Europe (2006-‐07). She had previously worked in Brussels, as a political advisor to the Party of European Socialists (2004-‐06) and as a policy researcher for Small Business Europe, a firm she helped establish (2001-‐04). Reynolds began her career as an information officer at the European Commission (2000-‐01). She was born in 1977 and studied at Oxford University.
Linda Riordan
Linda Riordan was first elected in 2005 and is MP for Halifax. Her policy interests include transport, culture, media and sport, and she is a member of the Chairmen’s Panel. Riordan positions herself on the left of the party and is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group.
Before entering Parliament, Riordan spent four years as private secretary to her predecessor as MP for Halifax, Alice Mahon. She also served on Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council (1995-‐2006), latterly as deputy leader of the Labour Group. During her time on the council she held various voluntary positions, including non-‐executive director of the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust, chairwoman of the Ovenden Initiative, and board member of Pennine Housing. Riordan completed a degree at Bradford University in 1997, having left her previous job at Midland Bank after struggling with chronic rheumatoid arthritis. She was born in 1953.
Joan Ruddock
Joan Ruddock was first elected to the House of Commons in 1987 and is MP for Lewisham Deptford. Her political interests include women, the environment and foreign affairs. Following her re-‐election in 2010, she was appointed as a Privy Councillor and in 2012, received a DBE in recognition of her public and political service. In 2010, she was Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change. Before gaining this portfolio, Ruddock was appointed Minister of State with responsibility for climate change and energy efficiency in 2009. Previously, she had worked as Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State in the same department from 2008 to 2009 and in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2007 to 2008. Ruddock used her earlier years on the backbenches to champion a variety of causes, successfully bringing in Bills on recycling, mastectomy, women-‐only selection lists, and organic food and farming. Before losing office in 1998, Ruddock had been Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State for Women (1997-‐98), and Opposition Spokesperson for Environmental Protection (1994-‐97), Home Affairs (1992-‐94) and Transport (1989-‐92).
Ruddock was a well-‐known political figure before her entrance to Parliament, having chaired the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament between 1981 and 1985 and played a prominent role in the feminist, anti-‐militarist Greenham Common protests. Ruddock was also manager of Reading Citizens Advice Bureau during this time (1979-‐86). She had previously worked on Berkshire County Council, where she was responsible for programmes aimed at unemployed young people (1977-‐79). Prior to this, Ruddock worked for the housing charities Oxford Housing Aid Centre (1973-‐77) and Shelter (1968-‐73). She was born in 1943 and studied at Imperial College, London.
Alison Seabeck
Alison Seabeck was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 as MP for Plymouth Devonport. Her constituency boundaries changed in 2010 and she is now MP for Plymouth Moor View. Seabeck is currently Shadow Minister for Defence. Before gaining this portfolio, she was Shadow Minister for Housing from 2010 to 2011. In addition to this, Seabeck chairs the PLP South West Regional Group. She has spent much of her time in the Commons assisting Geoff Hoon, most recently as his Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Transport (2008-‐09). Prior to this, she was one of Hoon’s Assistant Government Whips (2007-‐08), and his PPS during his time as Europe Minister (2006-‐07).
Before entering Parliament, Seabeck spent eighteen years as a political assistant and advisor, working for Nick Raynsford during his time as Minister for Local Government (1992-‐2005) and for Roy Hattersley, then Home Secretary (1987-‐92). She had previously worked as a further education administrator, recruitment consultant, and as a Marks and Spencer management trainee. Seabeck was born in 1954 and studied at the University of East London.
Angela Smith
Angela Smith was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 as MP for Sheffield Hillsborough. Her constituency boundaries changed in 2010 and she is now MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge. Her main policy interests are education and skills, pensions, and the environment, and she is currently the Shadow Deputy Leader of the House. Prior to this, she was an Assistant Whip. Smith spent three years as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Yvette Cooper at the Department of Local Government and at the Treasury, gaining the job almost immediately on entering parliament.
Prior to her election, Smith was an executive member of Sheffield City Council, with responsibility for education. During her time in the council’s Cabinet she was also a member of the Regional Education and Skills Commission and Sheffield First for Learning and Work (2002-‐05). Smith became a councillor in 1996 whilst an English teacher at Dearne Valley College. She joined the college after spending four years working towards a PhD at Cambridge University and earning a degree from Nottingham University. Before entering further education as a mature student in 1987, Smith worked as a secretary for Barclays Bank and the NHS (1979-‐87). She was born in 1961.
Gisela Stuart
Gisela Stuart was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is MP for Birmingham Edgbaston. Her policy interests include pensions (particularly provision for women), constitutional reform and the European Union, and she is a member of the Defence Select Committee. Between 2002 and 2004, Stuart was Labour’s Parliamentary representative on the Convention on the Future of Europe, the body formed to produce a draft constitution for the EU. She had previously been Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Department of Health (1999-‐2001) and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Paul Boateng during his time at the Home Office (1998-‐99).
Before entering Parliament, Stuart was a law lecturer at Worcester College of Technology and Birmingham University (1992-‐97). She entered academia after completing a law degree through the University of London External Study System in 1992. She had previously worked as a bookseller, directing the London Book Fair in 1983. Stuart was born in 1955 in West Germany.
Emily Thornberry
Emily Thornberry was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for Islington and Finsbury. Her main policy interests are the environment, housing and poverty, and she is currently the Shadow Attorney General. Before this, she was a junior Shadow Minister for Health from 2010-‐2011 and for Energy and Climate Change in 2010. On entering Parliament, she achieved success in securing the adoption of many elements of her 2006 Private Members Bill, which sought to give greater local accountability to Housing Associations.
Before entering Parliament, Thornberry was a barrister at the well-‐known Tooks Court chambers, where she specialised in criminal defence, inquests, actions against the police, courts martial and extradition (1985-‐2005). During this time, she also campaigned for more family-‐friendly employment policies and better access to childcare, helping found the Parental Leave Foundation. She was born in 1960 and studied at Canterbury University.
Valerie Vaz
Valerie Vaz was elected to the House of Commons in 2010. Her policy interests include constitutional affairs, international development and science and technology, and she is currently a member of the Health Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Vaz worked for the Government Legal Service, spending time at the Ministry of Justice and Treasury Solicitors Department (2001-‐09). Prior to joining the GLS, she sat as a Deputy District Judge, and briefly worked as a BBC local news presenter (1987). Vaz also served on Ealing Council during this time (1986-‐90), acting as Deputy Leader between 1988 and 89. Vaz’s early years as a solicitor were spent in local government and at City law firm Herbert Smith. She qualified as a solicitor in 1982 after first spending two years as an animal nutrition researcher at Cambridge University. Vaz was born in 1955.
Joan Walley
Joan Walley was first elected to the House of Commons in 1987 and is MP for Stoke-‐on-‐Trent North. Her policy interests include the environment, public health and small businesses, and she is currently Chair of the Select Committee on Environmental Audit and a member of the Liaison Select Committee. She was last on the Labour frontbench in 1995 as Opposition Spokesperson for Transport. Prior to gaining this role in 1990, she was Spokesperson for Environmental Protection and Development, a role she gained after just a year in the Commons.
Before entering Parliament, Walley was a member of Lambeth Council, where she chaired the social services committee (1982-‐85). Prior to this, she worked in the planning departments of Lambeth and Swansea Councils (1974-‐89). Walley’s first job involved work with recovering alcoholics (1970-‐73). She gained this role after completing a diploma in community work at Swansea University and a degree in social administration at Hull University. Walley was born in 1949.
Rosie Winterton
Rosie Winterton was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is MP for Doncaster Central. Widely regarded as a unifying figure, she was elected Chief Whip in the 2010 Shadow Cabinet elections. Winterton has held numerous ministerial positions and, before gaining the Whip’s office, was both Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and Shadow Minister for Women. Prior to the last election, Winterton held the Regional Economic Development portfolio, which involved collaborative work with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Communities and Local Government (2009-‐10). She had previously been Minister for Pensions (2008-‐09) and Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber (2008-‐10), gaining the posts after spending several years as a junior minister at the Departments for Transport (2007-‐08) and Health (2003-‐07). Winterton gained her first government post in 2001 when she was appointed Parliamentary Secretary at the Lord Chancellor’s Department.
Before entering Parliament, Winterton ran John Prescott’s private office, helping orchestrate his campaigns for the leadership and deputy leadership (1994-‐97). She had previously been a managing director at Connect Public Affairs, a post she gained after spending four years as parliamentary officer at the Royal College of Nursing and Southwark Council (1986-‐90). Winterton began her career as John Prescott’s constituency assistant (1980-‐86). She was born in 1958 and studied at Hull University.
Conversative MPs
Harriett Baldwin
Harriett Baldwin was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for West Worcestershire. Her policy interests are pensions, economics, social enterprise, and micro-‐finance, and she is a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Baldwin was a managing director at JPMorgan. Prior to gaining promotion in 2007 she spent eight years as head of currency management. She is a keen advocate of deregulation and during this time co-‐authored a report for the Centre for Policy Studies (2005) calling for lighter regulation of the City by the Financial Services Authority. Baldwin joined bankers JPMorgan in 1986, having already completed an MBA and spent a year as a Treasury analyst in Canada. She began her career in finance in 1982 with Security Pacific National Bank. Baldwin was born in 1960 and studied at Oxford University.
Nicola Blackwood
Nicola Blackwood was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Oxford West and Abingdon. She is particularly interested in civil liberties and is a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee. Blackwood is also a member of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission.
Before unexpectedly defeating the incumbent Liberal Democrat candidate, Evan Harris, Blackwood worked as a volunteer on human rights and aid projects in the Middle East, Mozambique, Rwanda and Bangladesh. She has also been an advisor to the Conservative International Development Team and a parliamentary researcher to Andrew Mitchell MP. She was born in 1979 and studied Music at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
Karen Bradley
Karen Bradley was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Staffordshire Moorlands. Her policy interests include the economy, rural affairs, home affairs, and childcare, and she is a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Bradley was senior manager at the accountancy firm KPMG (1998-‐2004, 2007-‐10). She came to politics relatively late in life, becoming an economics advisor to the Conservative Research Department in 2004, after first being seconded to the Conservative Treasury team in 2002. Bradley began her accountancy career at Deloitte, joining the company in 1991 after graduating from Imperial College, London. She was born in 1970.
Angie Bray
Angie Bray was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Ealing Central and Acton. Her policy interests include London, the NHS and education.
Bray was able to devote the two years prior to the 2010 election to her campaign. She had previously been a member of the Greater London Assembly, leading the Conservative group between 2006 and 2007, and acting as Deputy Chair of the Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee from 2004 to 2006. Before gaining a place on the Assembly in 2000, Bray worked as a public affairs consultant (1992-‐2000). She was a media and communications advisor to the Conservative Party between 1989 and 1992, having gained a decade of journalistic experience with Channel 4, London radio, and British Forces Broadcasting. She was born in 1953 and studied at St Andrew’s University.
Fiona Bruce
Fiona Bruce was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Congleton. Her policy interests include small business and families, and she is a member of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Bruce ran her own law firm, Fiona Bruce & Co LLP, and was a local councillor. She spent three of her six years on Warrington Borough Council as an Executive Member for finance (2006-‐09). During this time, Bruce was also involved in various community projects, establishing a free legal clinic and high street advice centre. In 2003, she won the national ‘Women into Business Award’ in recognition of her success in establishing her own firm. Bruce began her career in 1981 with a City of London law firm.
Therese Coffey
Therese Coffey was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Suffolk Coastal. Her political interests include rural affairs, enterprise, trade, defence, international development and animal welfare, and she is a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Coffey positions herself on the right of the party and is a member of the Thatcherite grouping Conservative Way Forward.
Before entering Parliament, Coffey was property finance manager at the BBC, a post she gained in 2009. She had previously worked as a finance manager and accountant at Mars Drinks (1997-‐2009). Coffey has a long history of Conservative Party involvement: she was deputy chair of the South East region in 2009, chaired North West Hampshire Conservatives from 2006 to 2009, was the Conservative candidate for Wrexham in 2005 and was national deputy chair of Conservative Students between 1993 and 1994. Coffey was born in 1971 and studied at Oxford University before gaining a PhD in Chemistry from University College London.
Tracey Crouch
Tracey Crouch was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Chatham and Aylseford. Her policy interests include home affairs, education, sport and economic affairs.
Before gaining her seat, Crouch was head of public affairs at Norwich Union/Aviva. Prior to joining the company in 2005, she worked in parliament as Chief of Staff to David Davis, then Shadow Home Secretary (2003-‐05), and to Damian Green, then Shadow Education Secretary (2003). Crouch had previously worked for public affairs firms Westminster Strategy (2000-‐03) and Harcourt (1998-‐2000). She began her career in 1996, spending two years as a researcher to Michael Howard MP. Crouch was born in 1975 and studied at Hull University.
Caroline Dinenage
Caroline Dinenage was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Gosport. She cites her political interests as defence (particularly supporting service families), small businesses and franchising. She is a member of the select committee for Science and Technology.
Dinenage was selected as the Conservative candidate for Gosport in 2009 though the UK’s second Open Primary. Before entering Parliament, Dinenage ran her own marketing business. Between 1998 and 2003 she was also a member of Winchester District Council. Dinenage was born in 1971 and studied at Swansea University.
Nadine Dorries
Nadine Dorries was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is the MP for Mid-‐Bedfordshire. Her policy interests include law and order, ‘social structure,’ health and rural affairs, and she is currently a member of the Chairmen’s Panel of Chairs. Dorries is an enthusiastic blogger, and attracted much criticism in 2009 when she complained in her blog that the investigation into expenses claims was putting MPs under such strain that a suicide seemed imminent. In 2008 she won the Spectator’s Readers’ Representative Award for her efforts to reduce the upper limit for abortions to 20 weeks. Dorries had previously attempted to impose greater restrictions on the availability of abortions in 2006 through a Private Members Bill, which sought both to reduce the time limit and enforce a ‘cooling off’ period for women seeking a termination.
Before entering Parliament, Dorries spent three years as a political advisor to Oliver Letwin MP. She had previously been a director at BUPA, joining the company in 1998 after she sold her own business, Company Kids Ltd. Prior to establishing Company Kids in 1987, Dorries was a medical rep and nurse. She was born in 1957.
Jackie Doyle-Price
Jackie Doyle-‐Price was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Thurrock. Her policy interests include welfare, foreign affairs, vocational education and financial services, and she is currently a member of the Public Accounts Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Doyle-‐Price worked for the Financial Services Authority. She spent the previous five years as an assistant private secretary to the Lord Mayor of the City of London (the head of the City of London Corporation). Between 1993 and 2000, Doyle-‐Price was a parliamentary officer at the same institution. During this time, she was also Chair of the Lewisham Deptford Constituency Association (1997-‐98) and Treasurer of the National Association of Conservative Graduates (1994-‐1997). Doyle-‐Price began her career in 1992 as an administrative officer for South Yorkshire Police. She was born in 1969 and studied at Durham University.
Jane Ellison
Jane Ellison was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Battersea. Her policy interests include social exclusion, public services and transport, and she is a member of the Business Select Committee.
Ellison spent her pre-‐parliamentary career working for John Lewis, latterly as senior manager of the store’s customer magazine. During this time, Ellison twice served on Barnet Council. She joined John Lewis as a graduate trainee in 1986 after studying at Oxford University, where she had been active in the (relatively) left-‐leaning Tory Reform Group. Ellison was born in 1964.
Lorraine Fullbrook
Lorraine Fullbrook was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for South Ribble. Her policy interests include law and order, immigration, the EU and the economy, and she is a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Fullbrook combined work as a business consultant with one day a week in Nicholas Soames’ office. In 2006 she was employed as a part-‐time director of Women2Win, the Conservative organisation dedicated to increasing female representation, despite her firm objection to women-‐only short-‐lists. Fullbrook had previously spent two years on Hart Council, rising to Council Leader in her second year there (2002-‐04). Until 2000, she worked as a media and press advisor. Fullbrook was born in 1959.
Cheryl Gillan
Cheryl Gillan was first elected to the House of Commons in 1992 and is MP for Chesham and Amersham. Until recently, she was Secretary of State for Wales (despite representing a constituency in Buckinghamshire), and was appointed in May 2010 after shadowing the post for five years. Gillan has enjoyed a varied parliamentary career, serving as Shadow Minister for Home Affairs (2003-‐05), as an Opposition Whip (2001-‐03), and as a Shadow Minister for International Development (1998-‐2001), Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1998-‐2001) and Trade and Industry (1997-‐98). She also pursued extra-‐parliamentary interests during this time, working as a consultant for the financial services firm, PKF, between 1999 and 2005. During the Conservatives’ last period in office, Gillan spent two years as Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Employment (1995-‐97) and a year as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Viscount Cranborne whilst he was Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal (1994-‐5).
Gillan had a lengthy career in business before joining Parliament. She was a marketing director at Kidsons Impey between 1991 and 1993, and prior to that spent five years as a senior marketing consultant at Ernst and Young. Gillan directed British Film Year from 1984 to 1986, after leaving International Management Group, where, in 1977, she had started her career. She was born in 1952 and studied at the College of Law.
Helen Grant
Helen Grant was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Maidstone and The Wealds. Her policy interests include business, women, families, social mobility and law and order, and she is Joint Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice and for Women’s and Equalities issues.
Prior to entering Parliament, Grant worked for her own law firm, Grants Solicitors, where she specialised in cases involving divorce and family breakdown. Whilst practising as a solicitor, she wrote several articles on family policy for the Centre for Social Justice and served on the Conservatives’ Social Mobility Task Force (2007-‐08). She has also worked as a special adviser to Oliver Letwin MP, Chair of Party Policy Review. Grant was appointed to the role in 2006, almost immediately after joining the party; she had previously been a Labour member, if only for a year (2004-‐05). Before establishing her own practice in 1996, Grant worked in a number of firms, beginning her career in 1985 as an articled clerk for Cartmell Mawson & Maine, Carlisle. She was born in 1961 and studied at Hull University and the College of Law.
Justine Greening
Justine Greening was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is the MP for Putney. She is currently Secretary of State for International Development, having served as Secretary of State for Transport prior to the September 2012 reshuffle. Her additional policy interests include vocational education, youth crime and the environment. Before gaining promotion in 2011, Greening was Economic Secretary to the Treasury and Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government. Prior to this, she was Shadow Minister for the Treasury, gaining the role after just two years in the Commons.
Greening spent three years as a sales and marketing finance manager at Centrica before entering Parliament. Prior to this, she worked on business strategy and finance at GlaxoSmithKline (1996-‐2002). She gained her first experience of politics during this time, serving on Epping Town Council between 1998 and 2002. Greening’s early career was spent as an auditor for PriceWaterhouse. She was born in 1969 and studied at Southampton University and London Business School.
Rebecca Harris
Rebecca Harris was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as MP for Castle Point. Her policy interests include small business, education and planning, and she is currently a member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee.
Before securing her seat, Harris worked in Parliament as a part-‐time caseworker. She has previously been a marketing director at Philimore and Co, a publishing house specialising in local history (1997-‐2007). During this time Harris was also a Special Adviser to Tim Yeo MP, aiding him whilst he was Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and the Environment, Health and Education, and Transport and Industry. Between 1999 and 2003 Harris served on Chichester District Council, and prior to the 2001 General Election she took a sabbatical to work in the Conservative Research Department. Harris was born in 1967 and studied at the London School of Economics.
Margot James
Margot James was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Stourbridge. She is a member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, and until 2010, also held the post of Vice-‐Chair of the Conservative Party, with special responsibilities for women’s issues. James is the Conservatives’ first openly lesbian MP, and at party conference publicly urged gay people to vote Tory on the basis that they have fewer children and are therefore net contributors to public services.
James has pursued a successful career in business, and before entering Parliament was head of European healthcare at Ogilvy & Mather, the firm to which she sold her own health consultancy, Shire Health, in 1999. During this time, James was also elected to Kensington and Chelsea Council (2006-‐08), and appointed Vice-‐Chair of the Party (2005). She had only re-‐joined the Conservatives two years prior to this, having left in 1990 in dismay at the ousting of Thatcher. Before co-‐founding Shire Health in 1986, James worked as a press officer in the Conservative Central Office and as a researcher to Sir Anthony Durant MP. She started work in 1979 in her Father’s business, after graduating from the London School of Economics, where she had been head of the Conservative association. James was born in 1958.
Eleanor Laing
Eleanor Laing was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is MP for Epping Forrest. Her main policy interests are education, transport, the economy and constitutional affairs, and she is currently a member of the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee. Laing lost credibility in 2009 when she faced a revolt among her constituents, who were shocked by the revelation that she had avoided paying £180,000 of capital gains tax on the sale of two flats funded by the taxpayer. She had made an estimated profit of £1 million on the flats and, though the evasion was not illegal, David Cameron insisted she repay £25,000 in partial recompense. Until 2010, Laing had spent an unbroken decade on the Conservative frontbench. During this time, she was Shadow Minister for Justice (2007-‐10), Shadow Minister for Women and Equality (2004-‐07), Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland (2005) and Shadow Minister for Children (2003). She had previously been Opposition Spokesperson for Education and Skills (2001-‐03) and Constitutional Affairs and Scotland (2000-‐01), and an Opposition Whip (1999-‐2000).
Laing spent nine years as a Parliamentary Special Advisor to John MacGregor before winning her seat in the Commons. Prior to gaining the role, Laing was a solicitor, working in London and Edinburgh (1983-‐89). She was born in 1958 and studied at Edinburgh University.
Pauline Latham
Pauline Latham was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as the MP for Mid Derbyshire. She has a special interest in education issues and is a member of the International Development Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Latham was a local councillor and director of Michael St. Development. She served on Derby City Council from 1992 to 1996 and from 1998 to 2010, and spent a year as the City’s Mayor in the intervening time. Latham was also a member of Derbyshire County Council from 1987 to 2002. Prior to this, she ran her own business, Humble Plc. Latham was born in 1948.
Andrea Leadsom
Andrea Leadsom was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 as the MP for South Northamptonshire. Her main policy interests are the economy and early years development, and she is a member of the Treasury Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Leadsom worked in the banking and finance industry, most recently as Head of Corporate Governance for Invesco Perpetual. In recent years she has also chaired the Oxford Parent Infant Project (2001-‐) and served on South Oxfordshire District Council (2003-‐07). Before joining Invesco Perpetual in 1999, Leadsom spent two years as Managing Director of a London hedge fund, and six years as a financial institutions director at Barclays Bank. She was born in 1963 and studied at Warwick University.
Jessica Lee
Jessica Lee was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Erewash. She is currently Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dominic Grieve as Attorney General.
Before entering Parliament, Lee was a barrister, specialising in family law. She recently worked on the ‘Breakdown Britain’ Report by the Centre for Social Justice, examining how the voluntary sector can assist in the area of family breakdown across the UK. Lee qualified as a barrister in 2000, after first graduating from Royal Holloway with a degree in History and Politics. She was chairperson of the Conservative Association whilst at university. Lee was born in 1976.
Charlotte Leslie
Charlotte Leslie was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Bristol North West. Her chief policy interest is education.
Before entering Parliament, Leslie was public affairs officer for the National Autistic Society. She also edited ‘Crossbow’, the magazine of the centre-‐right Bow Group. Prior to gaining selection, Leslie was Special Adviser to Shadow Education Secretary, David Willetts. She authored numerous reports during this time, including The Truth About Inclusion and The Invisible Children for the Bow Group, and More Good School Places for the Policy Exchange. She has previously worked for the Young Foundation and began her career at the BBC, working on television production. Leslie was born in 1978 and studied at Oxford University.
Karen Lumley
Karen Lumley was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Redditch. Her policy interests include education, health and foreign affairs, and she is a member of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Lumley was company secretary for RKL Geological Services Ltd and a political consultant for the Westminster Foundation for Democracy’s Conservative Programme. In recent years, Lumley has also worked as a local councillor, serving on Redditch Borough Council (2001-‐03), Clwyd County Council (1993-‐96), and Wrexham Borough Council (1991-‐96). Before joining RKL, Lumley worked at Ford Motor Company, as a trainee accountant (1982-‐84), and at John Bull Group, as an assistant accountant (1984-‐85). She was born in 1964 and studied at East Warwickshire College of Further Education.
Mary Macleod
Mary Macleod was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Brentford and Isleworth. Her policy interests include education, health and the constitution, and she is currently Parliamentary Private Secretary to Maria Miller as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Minister for Women and Equalities.
Before entering Parliament, Macleod ran her own consulting firm, providing advisory services to multinationals. She has also worked as a policy advisor, aiding Liam Fox MP, David Willetts MP, Theresa May MP, Caroline Spelman MP and Lord Strathclyde. Prior to this, Macleod was employed as a policy advisor to the Royal Family (1998-‐9). She began her career as a management consultant with Anderson Consulting (now Accenture). Macleod was born in 1968 and studied at Glasgow University.
Anne Main
Anne Main was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is the MP for St Albans. Her policy interests include the environment, education and health, and she is a member of the Chairmen’s Panel.
Before entering Parliament, Main spent four years on South Buckinghamshire District Council (2001-‐05). She has spent several years as a teacher, working as a supply teacher between 1991 and 1995. Main also taught English for a year after gaining a PGCE from Sheffield University in 1979. She was born in 1957.
Theresa May
Theresa May was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 and is the MP for Maidenhead. She has spent a decade in the top echelons of the party, and is currently Home Secretary. Before gaining a place in the current cabinet, May was Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (2009-‐10) and Shadow Minister for Women (2007-‐10). She had previously spent four years as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons (2005-‐09). Between 1999 and 2005, May occupied numerous Shadow Secretary of State positions, holding responsibility for Culture, Media and Sport (2005), the Family (2004-‐05), Environment and Transport (2002-‐04), Transport, Local Government and the Regions (2001-‐02) and Education and Employment (1999-‐2001). She was also made Party Chair in 2002, becoming the first woman to take on the role. Before gaining promotion to the Shadow Cabinet in 1999, May was Opposition Spokeswoman for Education and Employment (1998-‐99).
Prior to entering Parliament, May was Senior Adviser on International Affairs at the Association for Payment Clearing Services (1996-‐97). She had previously spent seven years as head of the European Affairs Unit of the same organisation (1989-‐96). Between 1986 and 1994, May served on Merton Council in London, becoming deputy leader of the Tories, and also chairing the education committee. Her first job was with the Bank of England, a position she gained in 1977 after graduating from Oxford University. She was born in 1956.
Anne McIntosh
Anne McIntosh was first elected to the House of Commons in 1997 as the MP for the Vale of York. She moved constituency in 2010 after boundary changes and is now the MP for Thirsk and Malton. McIntosh’s policy interests include transport, tourism, legal affairs and animal welfare, and she is currently a member of the Chairman’s Panel and Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. She has held numerous frontbench positions over the last decade, in recent years serving as Shadow Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2007-‐10) and for Children, Young People and Families (2006-‐07). Prior to this, McIntosh was Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions (2005-‐06), Foreign Affairs (2005), Environment and Transport (2003-‐05) and Transport (2002-‐03). She first gained promotion from the backbenches in 2001 when she was made Opposition Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport.
During her first two years in the Commons, McIntosh balanced her responsibilities as an MP with those she held as an MEP for Essex North and Suffolk South. She spent a decade in the European Parliament, first gaining election in 1989 as the MEP for Essex North East 1989-‐94. Before becoming an MEP, McIntosh worked as an advisor to the European Democratic Group (1983-‐89). She had previously been a lawyer, practicing mainly in Brussels. McIntosh was born in 1954 and studied Law at Edinburgh University and Aarhus University in Denmark.
Esther McVey
Esther McVey was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Wirral West. Her main policy interests are law and order, transport, education and city regeneration. McVey is a member of the Thatcherite grouping, Conservative Way Forward.
Before entering Parliament, McVey was self-‐employed, managing Winning Women, a networking organisation for business women she established in 2003, and Making It, the media and corporate training company she founded in 2002. She has also recently completed a Masters in Corporate Governance at Liverpool John Moores University. Prior to setting up Making It, McVey worked in broadcasting, appearing in numerous programmes, ranging from GMTV to a legal series that also starred Ann Widdecombe. She began her working-‐life in her family’s property and demolition company, J G McVey, joining the firm after completing a course in radio journalism and studying Law at Queen Mary’s. McVey was born in 1967.
Maria Miller
Maria Miller was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is the MP for Basingstoke. She is currently Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Minister for Women and Equalities. Her policy interests include housing, education and the media. Miller has occupied numerous frontbench posts in her relatively brief parliamentary career, serving as Minister for Disabled People at the Department for Work and Pensions (2010 – 2012), Shadow Minister for Families (2007-‐10), Family Welfare (2006-‐07) and Education (2005-‐06).
Before entering parliament, Miller was a marketing consultant, working primarily in advertising and public relations. She was a director of Rowland Saatchi from 1999 to 2003 and, prior to that, directed Grey Advertising Ltd (1995-‐99). Miller spent the previous five years as a marketing director at Texaco, after starting out as an account manager at Grey Advertising (1985-‐90). She was born in 1964 and studied at the London School of Economics.
Anne Milton
Anne Milton was elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is the MP for Guildford. She is currently a Government Whip. She was made Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State with responsibility for Public Health in 2010, after shadowing the Health Department for the previous three years. Before being appointed Shadow Health Minister in 2007, Milton was Shadow Minister for Tourism (2006-‐07).
Milton has extensive experience of health and social care, having worked as a nurse and medical advisor for almost three decades. Before entering Parliament, she worked part-‐time as a medical adviser to various social housing providers. During this time, she also served on Reigate Council (1999–2004), leading the Conservative Group from 2001 until 2003. Between 1977 and 1985, Milton worked in several London hospitals and as a district nursing sister in Hackney. She was born in 1955.
Penny Mordaunt
Penny Mordaunt was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Portsmouth North. Her chief policy interests are healthcare and care of the elderly, and she is currently a member on the European Scrutiny and the Defence Select Committees.
Before entering Parliament, Mordaunt worked in public affairs, and was most recently a healthcare consultant. Her previous roles include director of policy and strategy at Diabetes UK, and communications director for Kensington and Chelsea local authority. Earlier in her career, Maudaunt worked for the Freight Transport Association, and on George Bush’s 2000 election campaign. She was born in 1973 and studied at Reading University.
Nicky Morgan
Nicky Morgan was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Loughborough. Her policy interests include financial services, housing, education, the economy and mental health, and she is currently Assistant Government Whip.
Before entering Parliament, Morgan worked as a corporate lawyer, spending eight years as an in-‐house solicitor at Travers Smith and four years with Allen & Overy. She began a training contract with Theodore Goddard in 1994 after graduating from Oxford University. Morgan was born in 1972.
Anne Marie Morris
Anne Morris was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Newton Abbot. She cites her policy interests as health, the NHS and education.
Morris spent almost three decades in the City before turning to politics. She has directed her own coaching business, Manteion Ltd, for the past five years, and before that worked for the corporate law firm, Linklaters (2002-‐05). During this time, Morris also served on West Sussex County Council (2005-‐07). She was a marketing director at both Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers between 1997 and 2002, and before that worked in professional development. Morris spent her first decade in the city as a corporate finance lawyer, joining Withers in 1981 after graduating from Oxford University.
Sheryll Murray
Sheryll Murray was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for South East Cornwall. Her chief policy interests are the environment and tourism, and she is a member on the Select Committee for Environmental Audit.
Murray was Leader of the Conservative Group on Caradon District Council until her election to Parliament, and has also served as a county councillor for Rame. She has campaigned on fisheries issues as a spokesperson for Save Britain’s Fish and as a member of the Fishermen’s Association.
Sarah Newton
Sarah Newton was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Truro and Falmouth. Her main policy interests are agriculture, rural affairs and the elderly, and she is a member of the Select Committees for Administration and Science and Technology. She is also currently Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.
Before entering Parliament, Newton was UK Director of the International Longevity Centre, a think-‐tank that promotes ‘pragmatic and positive responses’ to the ageing population. She has previously been a Director of Age Concern, and has also served on Merton Council. Newton started her career as a marketing officer, working for businesses including IBIS, Citibank and American Express. She was born in 1962 and studied at King’s College London.
Caroline Nokes
Caroline Nokes was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Romsey and Southampton North. Her chief policy interests are education, sport and agriculture, and she is currently a member of the Select Committees for Environmental Audit and for Works of Art.
Before entering Parliament, Nokes was an executive member of Test Valley Borough Council with responsibility for leisure and culture. She has also recently worked as chief executive of the National Pony Society (2008-‐09) and as a consultant on Arab-‐EU affairs (2004). Nokes was first elected to Test Valley Council in 1999, while still a political researcher to her Father, Roy Perry MEP. She was born in 1972 and studied at Sussex University.
Priti Patel
Priti Patel was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is MP for Witham. Her chief policy interests are law and order, the elderly and the Euro, and she currently sits on the Select Committees for Members’ Expenses and for Public Administration.
Before gaining her place in Parliament, Patel was corporate communications director at Weber Shandwick, a public affairs consultancy (2007-‐10). She spent the previous five years in charge of responsible drinking and corporate relations at the multinational beer, wine and spirits company, Diageo (2003-‐08). Prior to entering the corporate world, Patel was a press officer, working for William Hague MP (1997-‐2000), the Conservative Research Department (1997), and the anti-‐EU Referendum Party (1995-‐97). She was born in 1972 and studied at Keele and Essex Universities.
Claire Perry
Claire Perry was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Devizes. Her main policy interests are the economy and education. She is currently Parliamentary Private Secretary to Philip Hammond as Secretary of State for Defence.
Before entering Parliament, Perry worked as a Special Advisor to George Osborne. She joined him in 2007, a year after she became a party member. Prior to this, Perry worked in finance and consultancy. Between 1994 and 2000, she worked for Credit Suisse First Boston, and during the previous four years she was a management consultant at McKinsey and Company. Perry completed an MBA at Harvard in 1990, after first spending several years as an analyst with the Bank of America (1985-‐88). She was born in 1964 and studied at Oxford University.
Amber Rudd
Amber Rudd was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Hastings and Rye. Her policy interests include defence, foreign affairs and welfare. She is currently Parliamentary Private Secretary to George Osborne as Chancellor of the Exchequer and also a member of the Select Committee on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Before entering Parliament, Rudd worked as a financial journalist and recruitment consultant, managing Lawnstone Ltd and writing columns for Corporate Financier. Prior to this, she worked in venture capital, helping businesses expand and raise money to help with their development plans. Rudd began her career in 1986 with the investment bank, JPMorgan. She was born in 1963 and studied at Edinburgh University.
Laura Sandys
Laura Sandys was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for South Thanet. Her policy interests include small businesses, care of the elderly, education and defence policy, and she is a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee.
Before entering Parliament, Sandys was an international political consultant and senior research associate at the Centre for Defence Studies, Kings College. In recent years, Sandys has also directed the website openDemocracy and worked on Cameron’s Democracy Taskforce. She has previously worked in public relations, founding her own company, Laura Sandys Associates, in 1992. Sandys was born in 1964. As the daughter of Duncan Sandys, former Defence Secretary and life peer, she was christened in the Crypt Chapel of the Palace of Westminster.
Chloe Smith
Chloe Smith was first elected to the House of Commons in a 2009 by-‐election. She was re-‐elected in the 2010 general election as MP for Norwich North. She is currently a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office, having previously been Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2011 to 2012 and Assistant Government Whip from 2010 to 2011. In addition to this, she is also a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel and the Tory Reform Group. Her political interests are listed as work and pensions, and public services.
Before joining Parliament, Smith worked for Deloitte and studied English at York University.
Anna Soubry
Anna Soubry was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Broxtowe. She is currently Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State for Health.
Before entering Parliament, Soubry worked as a criminal barrister in Nottingham. She was called to the bar in 1995, after spending sixteen years as a television journalist. During this time, she presented several regional news programmes, including North Tonight and Central News East. Soubry was born in 1956 and studied at Birmingham University.
Caroline Spelman
Caroline Spelman was first elected to Parliament in 1997 and is the MP for Meriden. She is one of the Party’s most prominent female MPs and until recently was the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Spelman is also on the executive committee of the Conservative Women’s National Council. Before gaining a position in the Coalition Cabinet, Spelman spent several years shadowing the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Department for Communities and Local Government (2009-‐10, 2005-‐07). Prior to this, she was Shadow Secretary of State for Local and Devolved Government Affairs (2004-‐05), for the Environment (2003-‐04) and for International Development (2001-‐03). Between 2001 and 2004, she was also Shadow Minister for Women. During her first term in Parliament, Spelman was Opposition Spokesperson for Health (1999-‐2001) and Women’s Issues (1999), and was briefly an Opposition Whip (1998-‐99).
Prior to entering Parliament, Spelman directed her own specialist lobbying firm, Cormack and Associates, which offered services to the food and biotechnology industry. Before establishing the company, she was a research fellow at the Centre for European Agricultural Studies, University of Kent (1989-‐93). Spelman had previously been deputy director of the International Confederation of European Beetgrowers in Paris (1984-‐89). She began her career in 1981 as a commercial negotiator for the National Farmers Union. Spelman was born in 1958 and studied at Queen Mary’s, London.
Elizabeth Truss
Elizabeth Truss was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for South West Norfolk. Her main policy interests are conservation, education and the economy, and she is currently Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State for the Department of Education.
Truss was forced to battle against a highly publicised de-‐selection attempt before she was able to secure her place in Parliament. Shortly after her selection for the seat, revelations about Truss’s private life were revived, prompting numerous constituency party members to insist that her candidature should be terminated. The motion was, however, decisively defeated. Before becoming an MP, Truss was deputy director of the centre-‐right think-‐tank Reform. She was also a local councillor, serving on Greenwich Council between 2006 and 2010. Prior to joining Reform, she worked in communications and as a commercial analyst for both Cable and Wireless (2000-‐05) and Shell International (1996-‐2000). She was born in 1975 and studied at Oxford University, where she was President of the University’s Liberal Democrat Club.
Theresa Villiers
Theresa Villiers was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is MP for Chipping Barnet. She is currently Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, having been promoted from Minister of State in the Department for Transport. Her policy interests include business, financial services, animal welfare and the environment. Before gaining her position in the current government, Villiers spent three years as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport (2007-‐10). Prior to this she was Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, elevated to the position in 2005 after just seven months in Parliament.
Before gaining her seat in the Commons, Villiers was a member of the European Parliament. She spent six years as an MEP for London, and between 2001 and 2002 was deputy leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament. Whilst there, she remained strongly Eurosceptic, opposing any perceived extension of EU powers and objecting to the introduction of the European Constitution. Villiers had previously been a law lecturer at King’s College London (1995-‐99). She turned to academic law after spending a year as a practising barrister (1994-‐95). Villiers was born in 1968 and studied at Bristol and Oxford Universities.
Angela Watkinson
Angela Watkinson was first elected to the House of Commons in 2001 as MP for Upminster. Her constituency boundaries were changed in 2010 and she is now the MP for Hornchurch. Her policy interests include education, law and order, families and Europe. As a member of the Thatcherite Conservative Way Forward and right-‐wing Cornerstone group of MPs, she is avowedly socially conservative. Watkinson was a Tory Whip from 2005 to 2012, and prior to that held various shadow ministerial positions, including Local Government Affairs and Communities (2005), Education (2004-‐05) and Health and Education (2004). She was first elevated within the party in 2002 when she was made an Opposition Whip (2002-‐04).
Watkinson spent several years as a local councillor before gaining a seat in Parliament. She served on Essex County Council from 1997 to 2001, and on the London Borough of Havering between 1994 and 98. Prior to this, Watkinson worked in various local government jobs in and around London. She has been a committee manager in Basildon District Council (1989-‐94), a clerk in Barking and Dagenham Council (1988-‐89) and special school secretary in Essex County Council (1976-‐88). She also completed a degree at Anglia University during this time. Watkinson took a career break between 1964 and 1976 to care for her family, leaving her former job at the Bank of New South Wales (1958-‐64). She was born in 1941.
Heather Wheeler
Heather Wheeler was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for South Derbyshire. Her main policy interests are affordable housing and economic regeneration, and she is currently a member of the Select Committee for Communities and Local Government.
Before entering Parliament, Wheeler was a local councillor and director of Bretby Inns, a pub-‐retailing company. She has extensive experience of local government, having spent the last fifteen years on South Derbyshire District Council, latterly as Leader of the Conservative group (2002-‐10) and Council Leader (2007-‐10). She had previously served on Wandsworth Council, gaining her seat in 1982, aged just 22. Wheeler began her career in 1979 as a City insurance broker. She was born in 1959.
Sarah Wollaston
Sarah Wollaston was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Totnes. Her chief policy interests are the NHS, alcohol related problems, bovine TB and rural communities. She is also a member of the Health Select Committee.
Wollaston was selected as the Conservative candidate for Totnes in 2009 in the UK’s first open primary selection. She had little prior political experience, having only joined the Party in 2006, but won praise for her history of NHS involvement. Wollaston has worked as a GP since 1999, and in recent years has also taught medical students and junior doctors. Before becoming a GP, she spent five years as a forensic medical examiner for Devon and Cornwall police (1996-‐2001). Wollaston was born in 1962 and qualified as a doctor in 1986.
Liberal Democrat MPs
Annette Brooke
Annette Brooke was first elected to Parliament in 2001 as the MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole. She has occupied numerous frontbench positions, most recently as Party Spokesperson for Children, Young People and Families (2006–10). Between 2005 and 2006, Brooke was Spokesperson for Education, and prior to that she was both Home Affairs Spokesperson (2001–04) and party Whip (2001–03). She has also chaired all-‐party groups on micro-‐finance, adoption and fostering, breast cancer and learning disabilities, and is currently a member of the Chairmen’s Panel.
Brooke spent seventeen years as a Poole Councillor before entering Parliament. During this time she chaired the planning, education, and environmental strategy committees, and oversaw the transition to a unitary authority. Outside of politics, Brooke has worked mainly in education, teaching social sciences and economics for the Open University and at several schools and colleges. Brooke qualified as a teacher in 1969 at Cambridge University, having earlier gained an economics degree from the London School of Economics. She was born in 1947.
Lorely Burt
Lorely Burt was first elected to Parliament in 2005 as MP for Solihull. She is currently Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party, having become the first woman to assume the position in 2007. Burt has held numerous frontbench positions, her most recent posts reflecting her interests in business and industry. Between 2009 and 2010, she was Spokesperson for Business, Innovation and Skills, and for the two previous years she held the Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform portfolio. Prior to this, Burt was Spokesperson for Small Business, Women and Equality (2006–07) and for Northern Ireland (2005–06). Burt was a Whip during her first year in parliament.
Prior to winning her parliamentary seat in 2005, Burt was a business consultant, working part-‐time to accommodate her political campaigning. She also served on the Liberal Democrat’s federal policy committee and on the West Midlands regional executive. Burt began her political career as a councillor on Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, serving between 1998 and 2003. Before moving into consultancy work, she spent several years as a manager in the marketing and financial services sector, and as the director of her own training firm. Burt gained an MBA in 1997, studying through the Open University. She had previously worked as a personnel manager for various private companies. Burt began her career in 1975 as an assistant prison governor. She was born in 1954 and studied at Swansea University.
Lynne Featherstone
Lynne Featherstone was first elected to Parliament in 2005 as the MP for Hornsey and Wood Green. She is a member of the Liberal Democrat Party and is currently Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State in the Department for International Development. Prior to this, she was a junior Home Office minister with responsibility for equality from 2010 to 2012. Featherstone has risen quickly within the party and has held numerous frontbench positions; she was Party Spokesperson for Youth and Equalities between 2008 and 2010, and served as Spokesperson for International Development during the previous year. In her first two years in Parliament she worked as Spokesperson for London (2006 – 07) and as Spokesperson for Home Affairs (2005 – 06). Featherstone has carved out a relatively high profile, winning commendation for her blog, and earning a place on the short-‐list for both Dods’ ‘Women MP of the Year’ prize (2007) and Channel 4’s ‘rising star’ political award (2006).
Featherstone spent five years as a Member of the Greater London Assembly before entering Parliament. During this time, she chaired the Assembly’s Committee on Transport and served on the health and standards committee, the fire and emergency planning authority, and the Metropolitan Police Authority. During this time Featherstone was also a member of Haringey Council. She stepped down in 2006, after serving eight years, five as leader of the Opposition (1998-‐2003). Prior to embarking on her political career, Featherstone worked as a designer and strategy consultant. She was born in 1951 in London and studied at Oxford Brookes University.
Tessa Munt
Tessa Munt was elected to the House of Commons in 2010 and is the MP for Wells and Somerset. She is a Liberal Democrat and is a Patron of the Parliamentary Candidates Association. She cites her political interests as education, the prison service, domestic violence, children and families, planning and the environment. She is currently Parliamentary Private Secretary to Vince Cable as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Munt has stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate on two previous occasions, standing in South Suffolk for the 2001 general election and in Ipswich during the 2001 by-‐election. Before becoming an MP, she worked as a social service administrator and as a teacher. Munt has also been a Childline volunteer since 2000. She was born in 1959.
Jo Swinson
Jo Swinson was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is the MP for East Dunbartonshire. Swinson was only 25 when she gained her seat but has since made a rapid ascent within the party. She has occupied numerous frontbench positions, most recently as Parliamentary Under-‐Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Prior to this, she was PPS to Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Council, and formerly to Vince Cable as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (2010-‐12). From 2008 to 2010, she held the post of Party Spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Demonstrating an interest in furthering gender equality, Swinson has chaired the party’s Campaign for Gender Balance (2007-‐2008), been Spokesperson for Women and Equality (2007) and worked on the Liberal Democrat’s Gender Balance Taskforce (2003 and 2006). During her first two years in parliament, Swinson was Spokesperson for Scotland (2006 – 07) and for Culture, Media and Sport (2005 – 06).
Before winning her seat, Swinson was engaged in youth politics, holding various senior positions within the Liberal Democrat’s Youth and Student wing. She also spent five years working as a marketing manager, taking up a position with Viking Radio after graduating from the London School of Economics with a degree in Management in 2000. Swinson was born in 1980.
Sarah Teather
Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather was first elected to the House of Commons in 2003 after a shock win in the Brent East by-‐election. She moved constituency for the 2010 General Election and now represents Brent Central. She is currently number two in the Department of Education, having been made Minister of State for Children and Families in 2010. Teather is also a member of the Liberal Democrats’ Federal Policy Committee and chairs the Party’s Health policy working group. Before gaining her current portfolio, Teather spent two years as Shadow Minister for Housing. Prior to that, Teather was Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (2007 – 08) and for Education, Universities and Skills (2006 – 07). She has also worked at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2005 – 06) and as Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government (2005). Teather began her frontbench career soon after entering the Commons, acting as Party Spokesperson for London between 2004 and 2005 and as Spokesperson for Health during the previous year.
Before becoming an MP, Teather was a policy analyst for the Macmillan Fund for Cancer Relief. During the year preceding her election she also served on Islington Council (2002 to 2003). Before joining Macmillan, Teather worked for a science policy consultancy advising European governments (2001-‐02) and as a science policy officer for the Royal Society (1998-‐2001). She was born in 1974 and graduated from Cambridge University in 1996 with a degree in pharmacology.
Jenny Willott
Liberal Democrat Jenny Willott was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and is the MP for Cardiff Central. She is currently Assistant Government Whip, having previously been Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change in 2010. Before assuming this position, Willott was Party Spokesperson for the Cabinet Office (2009 – 10), Work and Pensions (2008 – 09) and Justice (2008). She began her frontbench career in 2006, when she was made Spokesperson for Youth Affairs. Between 2006 and 2008, Willott was also Deputy Chief Whip.
Before winning her seat in the Commons, Willott worked for several charities and political organisations. Between 2003 and 2005, Willott was Head of Victim Support South Wales, and before that she spent two years as Head of Advocacy at UNICEF UK. Willott has also worked as a Researcher for the Liberal Democrat group in the Welsh National MP and for Lembit Öpik MP. During this time she spent two years as a local councillor, gaining election to Merton Council in 1998. Willott was born in 1974 and studied at Durham University before earning a Masters degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics in 1997.
Labour MPs
Diane Abbott Heidi Alexander Rushanara Ali Margaret Beckett Anne Begg Luciana Berger Roberta Blackman-‐Woods Hazel Blears Lyn Brown Karen Buck Jenny Chapman Katy Clark Ann Clwyd Ann Coffey Yvette Cooper Rosie Cooper Mary Creagh Stella Creasy Margaret Curran Gloria De Piero Gemma Doyle Angela Eagle Maria Eagle Julie Elliot Louise Ellman Natascha Engel Caroline Flint Yvonne Fovargue Sheila Gilmore Pat Glass Mary Glindon Helen Goodman Kate Green Lilian Greenwood Nia Griffith Harriet Harman Meg Hillier Julie Hilling Margaret Hodge Sharon Hodgson Kate Hoey Glenda Jackson Siân James Cathy Jamieson Diana Johnson Helen Jones Susan Elan Jones
Tessa Jowell Barbara Keeley Liz Kendall Fiona Mactaggart Shabana Mahmood Seema Malholtra Kerry McCarthy Siobhain McDonagh Alison McGovern Anne McGuire Ann McKechin Catherine McKinnell Madeleine Moon Jessica Morden Meg Munn Lisa Nandy Pamela Nash Fiona O’Donnell Chi Onwurah Sandra Osborne Teresa Pearce Bridget Phillipson Dawn Primarolo Yasmin Qureshi Rachel Reeves Emma Reynolds Linda Riordan Joan Ruddock Alison Seabeck Angela Smith Gisela Stuart Emily Thornberry Valerie Vaz Joan Walley Rosie Winterton
Conservative MPs
Harriett Baldwin Nicola Blackwood Karen Bradley Angie Bray Fiona Bruce Therese Coffey Tracey Crouch Caroline Dinenage Nadine Dorries
Jackie Doyle-‐Price Jane Ellison Lorraine Fullbrook Cheryl Gillan Helen Grant Justine Greening Rebecca Harris Margot James Eleanor Laing Pauline Latham Andrea Leadsom Jessica Lee Charlotte Leslie Karen Lumley Mary MacLeod Anne Main Theresa May Anne McIntosh Esther McVey Maria Miller Anne Milton Penny Mordaunt Nicky Morgan Anne Marie Morris Sheryll Murray Sarah Newton Caroline Nokes Priti Patel Claire Perry Amber Rudd Laura Sandys Chloe Smith Anna Soubry Caroline Spelman Elizabeth Truss Theresa Villiers Angela Watksinon Heather Wheeler Sarah Wollaston Liberal Democrat MPs Annette Brooke Lorely Burt Lynne Featherstone Tessa Munt Jo Swinson Sarah Teather Jenny Willott