Charlotte Atkins | |
---|---|
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport | |
In office 10 September 2004 –10 May 2005 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Sec. of State | Alistair Darling |
Preceded by | Tony McNulty |
Succeeded by | Karen Buck |
Member of Parliament for Staffordshire Moorlands | |
In office 1 May 1997 –12 April 2010 | |
Preceded by | David Knox |
Succeeded by | Karen Bradley |
Personal details | |
Born | Chelmsford,Essex,England | 24 September 1950
Political party | Labour |
Spouse | Gus Brain |
Children | 1 |
Parent(s) | Ronald Atkins Elizabeth Atkins |
Alma mater | London School of Economics |
Charlotte Jean Scott Atkins (born 24 September 1950) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Staffordshire Moorlands from 1997 until 2010.
Atkins is the daughter of Ron Atkins,the left wing former Labour MP for Preston North,and the longest-lived British MP ever. Atkins was educated at the Colchester County High School,and is a graduate of the London School of Economics,gaining a BSc in Economics. From the University of London,she also gained an MA in Area Studies. She worked as a community relations officer with the Luton Community Research Council from 1974 to 1976,before joining the trade union movement.
For four years she was a researcher with the UCATT union (from 1976 to 1980),then a researcher from 1980 to 1984 for the TASS and AUEW,before becoming a press officer for UNISON and COHSE from 1984 to 1987.
Atkins joined the Labour Party in 1965. In 1982,she was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth,and was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Group from 1983 to 1986. In 1981 she wrote a book with Chris Mullin entitled How to Select or Reselect Your MP.
In 1990,Atkins unsuccessfully contested the Eastbourne by-election caused by the assassination of the Conservative MP Ian Gow by the Provisional IRA. She entered the House of Commons at the 1997 general election in the Labour landslide as the Member of Parliament for Staffordshire Moorlands,a seat held previously by the retiring David Knox and which had been Conservative-held for 27 years.
After the 2001 general election,Atkins was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She was promoted to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport in 2004,but was dropped after the 2005 general election. In July 2005 she became a member of the Health Select Committee.
Atkins was largely loyal to the Labour government during her time in Parliament and rarely rebelled. [1]
Atkins was vice-chair of the All-Party Hill Farmers Group,and took part in a series of adjournment debates on government funding for inland waterways. [2] She is a volunteer for the Manchester-based British Fluoridisation Society.
Atkins lost her seat at the 2010 general election to Karen Bradley of the Conservative Party.
In March 2012,Atkins was appointed as the chair of the Central Shires Canal and River Trust Partnership Board. The CRT is the charity which has taken over the work and role of British Waterways. She was heavily involved in campaigning for more funds and the regeneration of England's waterways while in Parliament,and won the first ever Inland Waterways Association Parliamentarian of the Year Award in 2008.[ citation needed ]
Atkins was elected as a councillor for the Leek North ward of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council in a 2012 by-election,and continues to represent the ward. [3]
She married Gus Brain in June 1990 in Bromley and has one daughter,Emma,born in October 1986.[ citation needed ]
Her twin sister,Liz,is a Lambeth Councillor.[ citation needed ]
Leek is a market town and civil parish in the county of Staffordshire, England, on the River Churnet. It is situated about 10 miles (16 km) north east of Stoke-on-Trent. It is an ancient borough and was granted its royal charter in 1214.
Candice Kathleen Atherton was a British Labour politician and journalist. After serving as a councillor in Islington, where she was mayor, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Falmouth and Camborne from 1997 to 2005. In her later life she lived in Cornwall and was a member of Cornwall Council.
Karen Patricia Buck is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westminster North, previously Regent's Park and Kensington North, since 1997. A member of the Labour Party, she was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport from 2005 to 2006 and served as Shadow Minister for Social Security from 2020 to 2023.
Janet Elizabeth Ann Dean is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Burton from 1997 to 2010.
Sir Michael Louis David Fabricant is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lichfield in Staffordshire, formerly Mid Staffordshire, since 1992.
Staffordshire Moorlands is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council is based in Leek, the district's largest town. The district also contains the towns of Biddulph and Cheadle, along with a large rural area containing many villages. North-eastern parts of the district lie within the Peak District National Park.
Staffordshire Moorlands is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Karen Bradley, a Conservative who served as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport between 2016 and 2018, before she became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2018 to 2019. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election at least every five years. This seat has seen a swing to the Conservatives at the past four elections.
Stone is a constituency in Staffordshire, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 1997 recreation by Sir Bill Cash, a Conservative. On 9 June 2023, he announced his intention to stand down at the next general election.
Sir William Fergus Montgomery was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for three separate periods totalling 34 years, each time representing a different constituency.
Worth Valley is a ward in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, West Yorkshire. The population of the ward taken at the 2011 Census was 14,387. It is named after the River Worth that runs through the valley to the town of Keighley where it joins the River Aire. In the north it is bounded by North Yorkshire, in the west by Lancashire and in the south by Calderdale District.
Staffordshire Moorlands District Council elections are held every four years. Staffordshire Moorlands District Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan district of Staffordshire Moorlands in Staffordshire, England. Since the last boundary changes in 2003, 56 councillors have been elected from 27 wards.
Ronald Henry Atkins was a British Labour politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Preston North for two terms: from 1966 until 1970, and from February 1974 until 1979. His career in British politics spanned nearly sixty years, from 1951 to 2010, including several decades as a councillor in local government, and nine as a Member of Parliament.
Leek was a parliamentary constituency in Staffordshire which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Harold Davies, Baron Davies of Leek, PC was a British Labour Party politician.
Matthew James Offord is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hendon since 2010. He was previously a member of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa Governing Council.
Dame Karen Anne Bradley is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2018 to 2019, and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Staffordshire Moorlands since 2010.
Jack Edgar Brereton is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Stoke-on-Trent South constituency since the 2017 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he is a former councillor on Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
Sally-Ann Hart is a British politician who has been the member of parliament (MP) for Hastings and Rye since 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, she succeeded Amber Rudd, the former home secretary.
Elections to Staffordshire County Council took place on 6 May 2021 on the same day as district council elections in Cannock Chase and Tamworth and other local elections in England. All of the council's divisions were up for election, meaning a total of 62 councillors were elected.