Stella Creasy

Stella Creasy
Dr Stella Creasy MP
Member of Parliament for Walthamstow
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Neil Gerrard
Majority	9,478 (23.1%)
Personal details
Born	Stella Judith Creasy (1977-04-05) 5 April 1977 Sutton Coldfield, UK
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour Co-operative
Relations	www.burkespeerage.com
Children	1
Residence	London
Alma mater	Magdalene College, Cambridge London School of Economics
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Academic and lobbyist
Religion	Christian (Anglicanism)
Website	workingforwalthamstow.org.uk

Stella Judith Creasy MP^[1] (born 5 April 1977, West Midlands)^[2] is a British Labour Co-operative politician who has served as Member of Parliament for the Greater London constituency of Walthamstow since 2010.^[3]

Early life and career

Born at Sutton Coldfield, she is the daughter of Cambridge graduates Philip Creasy and Corinna (née Martin), both active Labour Party members; her father is a trained opera singer and her mother a teacher.^[4] Creasy has aristocratic family connections on her mother's side, including the Howards, Earls of Carlisle (through whom she is related to Polly Toynbee), the Cayzer family and the present (9th) Viscount Gort, her fourth cousin.^[5][6]

After spending her early childhood in Manchester, the family moved to Colchester where Creasy attended Colchester County High School for Girls, a grammar school.^[4] Although she had initially failed the Eleven-plus, her family's move south gave her a second chance.^[4] Creasy attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, where she read Social and Political Sciences before pursuing postgraduate studies at London School of Economics.

In 2006, having already started work as a parliamentary researcher, she completed her thesis entitled Understanding the lifeworld of social exclusion, receiving a PhD degree from the University of London in Social Psychology.^[7] Dr Creasy also received the Richard Titmuss Award for her academic psychology papers.

Early political career

Creasy worked as a lobbyist and PR consultant, becoming head of Public Affairs at the Scout Association.^[8]

She was elected as a Waltham Forest Councillor. She became Deputy Mayor and, prior to her election to the House of Commons, served as the borough's Mayor for four months.^[9]

She is a former deputy director of the think tank Involve, and worked as a researcher and speech writer for various ministers in the Labour government, notably Douglas Alexander, Charles Clarke and Ross Cranston.^[9][10]

Creasy was a member of the Young Fabians and served on its executive. In 2009 she co-wrote, with Rachel Reeves, a pamphlet for the Young Fabians called The New Progressives.^[11]

In Parliament

Creasy was selected as the Labour Party candidate for Walthamstow, being elected to Parliament at the 2010 general election as the successor to the previous Labour MP, Neil Gerrard, who was stepping down from Parliament.^[6]

She is a member of Ed Miliband's Opposition frontbench, serving as Shadow Minister for Crime Prevention.^[12]

Payday loans

Creasy has been a leading protagonist in campaigning for better regulation of payday loans companies.^[13] In an article in The Guardian, she stated that just six companies controlled lending to 90% of the seven million Britons without a bank account or credit card. Her disclosure that the average cost of credit charged to these customers was 272% APR, as in the rest of Europe, and that there was a fourfold increase in payday loans since the start of the recession in 2008 led to cross-party parliamentary support for a cap. Creasy also highlighted in a speech to the House of Commons the lack of competition in the market, leading to Government support for a cap of loans which exploit the poor, which in some cases reached 4000%. APR.^[14]

In 2012, a Wonga employee used company equipment to make offensive personal attacks against Dr Creasy.^[15] Wonga made an "immediate and unreserved apology" following these malicious attacks, and Creasy also managed to get the firm to promote one of her constituency events in aid of struggling families.^[15] According to The Guardian, a Wonga computer was used to edit the company Wikipedia entry using several accounts.^[15]

Twitter

At the end of July 2013 on her Twitter timeline, as with the feminist journalist Caroline Criado-Perez, Creasy received numerous rape threats and other misogynistic messages;^[16] this brought the two women together, Criado-Perez having successfully lobbied the Bank of England to feature a woman on the reverse of £10 bank notes.^[4]

Creasy wrote in an article published on 27 July: "Twitter tell me we should simply block those who 'offend us', as though a rape threat is matter of bad manners, not criminal behaviour."^[17] She also appeared on Newsnight on 30 July 2013 with Toby Young, the Conservative commentator, over the validity of addressing harassment on the social networking site.^[18][19] Young has objected to Twitter's subsequent change in policy, writing that the company: "shouldn't change its abuse policy in response to being brow-beaten by a politician".^[20] On 2 September 2014 at the City of London Magistrates Court, Peter Nunn was found guilty of sending menacing messages to Creasy,^[21] and was subsequently jailed for eighteen weeks.^[22]

Outside interests

Creasy has long been a fan of indie band The Wedding Present and wrote an essay to accompany the re-release of their album Seamonsters in 2012.^[23]

References

External links

• Official website
• www.parliamentaryrecord.com
• Stella Creasy on Twitter
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted
• Interview with Stella Creasy by John Rentoul Ethos Journal