Maria Eagle

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Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British politician and solicitor. She is the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Liverpool Garston. She currently holds the rank of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office with responsibility for several portfolios including education. In Northern Ireland she inherited the 'poisoned chalice' of the Northern Ireland Education Order that proposes ending academic selection in the province. Many locals are adamantly opposed to the Order because they see it as undermining an academic system that achieves better results than many other parts of the United Kingdom. The Order will come before the House of Commons and House of Lords in May 2006.

Eagle was born in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, the daughter of a printworker, she was educated at St Peter's Church of England School in Formby and the Formby High School, before attending Pembroke College, Oxford where she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1983. She then went to The College of Law, London, where she took her law finals in 1990. She was a solicitor in the voluntary sector from 1983, before she joined Brian Thompson & Partners in Liverpool as an articled clerk in 1990, before becoming a solicitor with Goldsmith Williams in Liverpool in 1992, before becoming the senior solicitor at Steven Irving & Co also in Liverpool, where she remained until her election to Westminster.

She joined the Labour Party in 1978, and was elected the secretary of the Crosby Constituency Labour Party (CLP) for two years in 1983, and was also elected as the campaigns organiser with that CLP for three years in 1993. She unsuccessfully contested the Crosby seat at the 1992 General Election where she was defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Malcolm Thornton by 14,806. Eagle was elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 General Election at Liverpool Garston following the retirement of the veteran Labour MP Edward Loyden. Eagle held the seat with a majority of 18,417 and has remained the MP there since. She made her maiden speech on June 17, 1997. [1]

In parliament she was a member of the Public Accounts Committee following her initial election, and in 1999 she was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department of Health, John Hutton. She was promoted to the Tony Blair government following the 2001 General Election as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, and after the 2005 General Election, she was the Minister for children at the Department for Education and Skills, until the May 2006 reshuffle moved her to Northern Ireland, where she is currently (December 2006) Minister for more than one department, including the Department for Employment and Learning.

Before entering parliament, Eagle concentrated on housing issues whilst a solicitor. When she was first elected to parliament in 1997 she joined her twin sister, Angela Eagle, who had been elected at the previous parliament, to serve as probably the first set of twins in the House of Commons, but certainly the first set of women twins. Like her sister, she is a very able chess player having played for England, and a keen cricketer. She has also called for the ban on mink fur farming. Liverpool John Lennon Airport, named after the former Beatles member, is in her constituency.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Edward Loyden		 Member of Parliament for Liverpool Garston
1997 – present		 Incumbent

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