Mary Creagh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mary Creagh MP | |
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Member of Parliament
for Wakefield |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 5 May 2005 |
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| Preceded by | David Hinchliffe |
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| Born | 2 December 1967 Coventry |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | Pembroke College, Oxford |
Mary Helen Creagh (born 2 December 1967) is a British politician. She is the Labour Member of Parliament for Wakefield.
Mary Creagh was born and brought up in Coventry of Irish parentage, her father a car factory worker and her mother a primary school teacher, She was educated locally at the Bishop Ullathorne Comprehensive School in Coventry before winning a scholarship to attend Pembroke College, Oxford where she studied modern language. She finished her studies at the London School of Economics with a MSc in European Studies. She has worked with the European Parliament in Brussels and the European Youth Forum. She taught entrepreneurship at the Cranfield University School of Management from 1997 until her election to Westminster, and spent seven years as a trustee with Rathbone, a national charity.
She was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Islington in 1998, becoming the Labour group leader (2000-2004), before standing down from the council in 2005. In 2002 Creagh instigated an investigation into cronyism in the appointment of five LibDem coucillors to Islington Council. After the longest ever investigation by the Standards Board for England her complaint was rejected and Creagh was criticised as being "heavily influenced by her political motives" and that she was an "insensitive witness, lacking in balanced judgment and one who was prepared to make assumptions about honesty and integrity of others without any proper basis" [1].
She was elected as an MP at the 2005 General Election when she succeeded the retiring David Hinchliffe. Mary Creagh was elected with a majority of 5,154 and has remained the MP there since. She made her maiden speech on May 25, 2005 using the occasion to raise issues of poverty in her constituency. She also remembered the locally born sculptor Barbara Hepworth.[2] She was a member of the Human Rights Select Committee from 2005 until 2007, and has been the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Andy Burnham, since 2006. In 2007 she was among those MPs who backed Gordon Brown for the leadership of the Labour Party [3].
She has been married to Adrian since 2001 and they have a son, Clement (named after the former Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee) and they live in London, with Mary spending weekends in her constituency. She is fluent in French and Italian and enjoys cycling and yoga. She is a member of the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union.
[edit] External links
- Official Site
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Mary Creagh MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Mary Creagh MP
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by David Hinchliffe |
Member of Parliament for Wakefield 2005 – present |
Incumbent |
