Clare Moody

Last updated

Clare Moody
05-Mayo-17 Visita Claire Moody (5) (34309883872) (cropped).jpg
Moody in 2017
Member of the European Parliament
for South West England
In office
1 July 2014  – 1 July 2019
Personal details
Born
Clare Miranda Moody

(1965-10-30) 30 October 1965 (age 58)
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
Political party Labour
Residence(s) Salisbury, Wiltshire
Alma mater University of Kent
Occupation
  • Politician
  • trade unionist
Website Official website

Clare Miranda Moody (born 30 October 1965) is a British Labour Party politician and trade unionist who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2014 to 2019.

Contents

Early life and career

Clare Miranda Moody was born on 30 October 1965 in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire to Joan and Raymond Moody. [1] [2] Brought up in Burford, her father served as town mayor and both her parents were Conservative Party activists. [3] [2]

Moody trained as a secretary. Later she studied industrial relations at the University of Kent and began her career in trade unionism at the Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (BIFU). [4] BIFU went through several amalgamations to become UNIFI, Amicus, and later Unite, where she worked as a regional officer in Bournemouth. [5]

Moody worked in the Number 10 Policy Unit under Prime Minister Gordon Brown. [3] [6] She was the Labour candidate for Salisbury, a safe Conservative seat, at the 2005 general election. [3] Moody also stood to become the inaugural Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner, [7] reaching the second round as Labour's candidate in the 2012 election. [8]

European Parliamentary career

Moody visiting Gibraltar in 2017 05-Mayo-17 Visita Claire Moody (31) (34309885242).jpg
Moody visiting Gibraltar in 2017

Moody unsuccessfully contested South West England in the 2004 European Parliament election, in fourth position on the Labour Party list. [3] However, she was elected as a Member of European Parliament for the region in the May 2014 elections, now placed as the lead list candidate. [9]

During her tenure in the European Parliament, Moody served as vice-chair of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence. She has also been a member of the Budget, Foreign Affairs, Industry, Research and Energy, and Women's Rights committees. [1] [10] [11]

She was co-chair of the Friends of Georgia group, and worked on the EU-Georgia Association Agreement through her Foreign Affairs committee membership. [12] [13] Moody voted in favour of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market in 2019, despite concerns that the legislation enforced censorship on EU internet users. [14]

Moody lost her seat in the 2019 European Parliament election, when no Labour candidate was returned in South West England.

Post-Parliamentary career

Moody was appointed Political Director at public relations company Grayling in 2019, a subsidiary of Huntsworth, where she later became Senior Strategic Director. [15] [16] [17] In 2021, she was appointed co-CEO of the human rights and equality charity Equally Ours. [18] [19]

In June 2022, Moody was shortlisted to become the Labour candidate in the marginal Stroud constituency, [18] but was not selected. [20]

Moody is the Labour candidate in the 2024 Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner election. [21]

Political views

European Union

Moody supported the remain campaign in the 2016 EU membership referendum, [22] and supported a delay before invoking Article 50 to allow for negotiations post-referendum. [23] She supported Britain staying in the European single market and the Customs Union post-Brexit. [24] She chaired the Labour Movement for Europe from 2017 to 2019, and campaigned for a second referendum on the final Brexit deal. [25]

She credited the loss of her European Parliamentary seat in 2019 to Labour's Brexit position, arguing that the party needed to adopt a clear pro-EU stance. [26] In 2023, The New European reported that she acknowledged Britain would not rejoin in the next parliament, but believed rejoining "will become a question again. For a growth agenda, we have to fix our relationship with the EU." [27]

Labour Party

Moody supported Yvette Cooper in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election. [28] During the leadership challenge to Jeremy Corbyn in June 2016, she supported calls for his resignation. [29]

Personal life

Moody resides in Salisbury, Wiltshire. [3] She has a son. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Corbett</span> Former Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party

Richard Graham Corbett CBE is a former British politician who served as the final Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP), from 2017 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alyn Smith</span> Scottish National Party politician (born 1973)

Alyn Edward Smith is a Scottish politician. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stirling at the 2019 general election. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 2004 to 2019. He has been serving as SNP Spokesperson for Europe and EU Accession since December 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South (European Parliament constituency)</span> Constituency of the European Parliament

South is a European Parliament constituency in Ireland. It elects 5 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) using proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (PR-STV).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molly Scott Cato</span> British economist and Member of the European Parliament

Sarah Margaret "Molly" Scott Cato is a British Green politician, economist and activist. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West England from 2014 to 2020. From 2012, until her election as an MEP, she was Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at the University of Roehampton. Scott Cato speaks for the Green Party on finance and the EU, and is known for her work in the field of co-operative studies. She has published on green economics, localism and anti-capitalism, and has contributed to works on the risks of nuclear power, the use of which she strongly opposes.

Annunziata Mary Rees-Mogg is a freelance journalist whose focus is finance, economics, and European politics and was a British Brexit Party then Conservative politician during 2019 and into early 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Bearder</span> British Liberal Democrat politician

Catherine Zena Bearder is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament between 2 July 2014 and 12 November 2019. She was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 4 June 2009 to 31 January 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Arnott</span> Brexit Party politician

Jonathan William Arnott is a British politician and former schoolteacher. After the 2014 European Parliament election, he served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North East England region. Originally sitting as a UK Independence Party (UKIP) representative, he resigned from the party on 19 January 2018 to sit as an independent until designating as Brexit Party on 17 April 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom</span> Election

The 2014 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2014 European Parliament election, held on Thursday 22 May 2014, coinciding with the 2014 local elections in England and Northern Ireland. In total, 73 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation. England, Scotland and Wales use a closed-list party list system of PR, while Northern Ireland used the single transferable vote (STV).

Margaret Lucille Jeanne Parker is a British former politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands region between 2014 and 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Collins</span> British politician

Jane Maria Collins is a British politician and horse show-jumper who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2014 to 2019. She was elected in May 2014 as a member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), but defected to the Brexit Party in 2019 in the last months of her membership of the European Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janice Atkinson</span> British politician

Janice Ann Atkinson is a former British politician who was a Member of the European Parliament for the South East England region. She formerly represented the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and later sat as an independent: she was elected in 2014, second on the list for the region behind Nigel Farage. In March 2015, she was expelled from UKIP for "bringing the party into disrepute" after her chief of staff was recorded trying to fraudulently inflate her expenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Bours</span> British Independent politician

Louise Bours, also known as Louise van de Bours, is a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North West England region. She was elected in 2014 as a UK Independence Party candidate but resigned from the party 2018, and sat as an independent until she stood down at the 2019 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Ward (politician)</span> British politician

Julie Carolyn Ward is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament for the North West England region for the Labour Party from 2014 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colleen Fletcher</span> British politician

Colleen Margaret Fletcher is a British Labour Party politician. She was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North East in the 2015 general election. Prior to her parliamentary career, she was a local councillor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom</span> 2019 election of members of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom

The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election, held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results were announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019, after all the other EU countries had voted. This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020, and was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reform UK</span> Political party in the United Kingdom

Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit. It was a significant political force at the 2019 European Parliament election, but failed to win any seats at the 2019 general election. After the UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020, it was renamed to Reform UK, and it became primarily an anti-lockdown party during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, in December 2022, it began campaigning on broader right-wing populist themes during the British cost-of-living crisis.

Andrew Robert England Kerr is a British politician. England Kerr was elected as a Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands constituency in the 2019 European parliamentary election. Prior to his political career he was a solicitor who specialised in property law. On 29 September 2019, he became an independent MEP after his party withdrew the whip.

Lucy Elizabeth Harris is a British Conservative Party politician and advisor. She was elected as a Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency in the 2019 European parliamentary election. She held this role until the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU. Prior to her political career, she worked in publishing as a corporate communications executive for The Quarto Group, and later the Greater London Authority.

The 2019 European Parliament election for the election of the delegation from the United Kingdom was held on 23 May 2019. These were the last elections to the European Parliament to be held before Brexit.

References

  1. 1 2 "Clare MOODY". Europa . European Parliament. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Interview: Raymond & Joan Moody". The Bridge Magazine. December 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Sarah O'Grady (22 March 2010). "Tory roots of Brown's aide Clare Moody". Daily Express . Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  4. 1 2 "Clare Moody". Her Salisbury Story. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  5. ↑ "Contact us - Unite in the South West". Unite the Union. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  6. ↑ "European elections 2014: Labour aim to get back on South West map". BBC News. 12 May 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  7. ↑ "Union boss throws hat in ring for police post". The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. 1 June 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  8. ↑ "Wiltshire police and crime commissioner results". BBC. 16 November 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "vote 2014 - South West". BBC. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  10. ↑ Moody, Clare (27 November 2018). "UK must remain a defence player". The Parliament Magazine. Dods. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  11. ↑ "Clare Moody MEP". Labour in Europe. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  12. ↑ "MEP calls Georgia a star of the region for commitment to European values". Agenda.ge. 14 November 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  13. ↑ Moody, Clare (29 January 2019). "With Salome Zurabishvili, Georgia leads the way, again". EURACTIV. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  14. ↑ "EU votes for copyright law that would make internet a 'tool for control'". The Guardian. 20 June 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  15. ↑ "Welcome to Grayling Brussels PA". Grayling. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  16. ↑ "Grayling's report on how politicians across Europe are using social media" (PDF). Grayling. 28 April 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  17. ↑ "Healthcare". Grayling. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  18. 1 2 Loveridge, Ashley (9 June 2022). "Former MEP Clare Moody throws hat into the ring for Stroud Labour seat". Stroud Times. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  19. ↑ "Our team". Equally Ours. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  20. ↑ Stewart, Heather (1 July 2022). "Starmer allies reject claims leftwingers blocked from standing for Labour". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  21. ↑ "New police cuts: Tories demand £8 million more from local taxpayers in return for 200 fewer police says Labour PCC candidate". Midsomer Norton and Radstock Nub News. 26 February 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  22. ↑ "Should we stay in the EU? MEP Clare Moody will say 'yes' at a Taunton meeting". Somerset County Gazette. 2 February 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  23. ↑ "'Hard Brexit' will 'blow a hole' in the economy, warns Labour MEP". The Herald. Plymouth. 28 September 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.[ permanent dead link ]
  24. ↑ Moody, Clare (22 June 2017). "After May's election failure, we need to hit the reset button on Brexit negotiations". LabourList. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  25. ↑ Rodgers, Sienna (29 April 2019). "34 Labour MEP candidates sign public vote pledge". LabourList. Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  26. ↑ Jenkins, Philippa (27 May 2019). "Former Labour MEP Clare Moody says 'voters have had enough' after losing her seat". CornwalLlive. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  27. ↑ Beckett, Francis (31 January 2023). "What Britain's MEPs did next". The New European. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  28. ↑ "Unparalleled Ambition for Britain - Why I'm Backing Yvette for Labour Leader". HuffPost UK. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  29. ↑ "South West MEP backs calls for Jeremy Corbyn to stand down". The Herald. Plymouth. 29 June 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2016.[ permanent dead link ]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.