Laura Pidcock | |
---|---|
Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights [lower-alpha 1] | |
In office 12 January 2018 –12 December 2019 | |
Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
Preceded by | Jack Dromey |
Succeeded by | Rachael Maskell |
Member of Parliament for North West Durham | |
In office 8 June 2017 –6 November 2019 | |
Preceded by | Pat Glass |
Succeeded by | Richard Holden |
National Secretary of the People's Assembly Against Austerity | |
Assumed office 2020 | |
Personal details | |
Born | North Shields,England,UK | 19 August 1987
Political party | Labour |
Children | 1 |
Residence(s) | Lanchester,England,UK |
Alma mater | Manchester Metropolitan University Northumbria University |
Profession | Politician |
Laura Pidcock (born 19 August 1987) is a British former Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Durham from 2017 until 2019,when she lost her seat. [1] She served as Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights in Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet. [2] In the 2019 parliamentary election,she lost her seat to the Conservative Richard Holden,who won the constituency with a majority of 1,144.
Pidcock was elected to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party in November 2020, [3] from which she resigned in January 2022. She is currently the National Secretary of the People's Assembly Against Austerity. [4]
Pidcock was born in North Shields,North Tyneside and raised in New Hartley and Seaton Delaval,Northumberland. [5] Her parents were both active in politics. Her mother Mary was a social worker while her father Bernard was an office manager [6] who was a member of Northumberland County Council from 2008 until his death in February 2019. [7] Pidcock recollects,at the age of 3,attending demonstrations with her parents against then-Prime Minister,Margaret Thatcher,and against the apartheid system in South Africa. [8] Pidcock has stated,"From a very,very young age I was taught to see everything through a political lens and through a class lens",and that at school she was known as "the political one" and a "swot". [9]
She studied politics at Manchester Metropolitan University, [10] and was a mental health support worker before working within,then managing,the education team at anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card. [10] She completed an MSc in Disaster Management and Sustainable Development at Northumbria University in 2012,with research focusing on children's institutions in Bulgaria. [11]
Pidcock was councillor for Cramlington Eastfield division on Northumberland County Council until she lost her seat to the Conservative Party candidate in the 2017 local elections. [10]
Only weeks prior to the 2017 United Kingdom general election,Pidcock was selected to stand for Labour in North West Durham,when the previous MP,Pat Glass,stood down. [12]
A feminist, [13] she said in her maiden speech that the Palace of Westminster dated from "a time when my class and my sex would have been denied a place in it,because we are deemed unworthy". [14] Her speech was shared over 200,000 times on social media in 48 hours. [15]
On 12 January 2018,she was appointed Shadow Minister for Business,Energy and Industrial Strategy. [16] Pidcock was later appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights. Pidcock announced at the 2019 TUC that the next Labour Government would create a Ministry for Employment Rights to "bring about the biggest extension of rights for workers that our country has ever seen" to deliver better wages,greater security and give workers more of a say over how their workplaces are run. [17]
Pidcock lost her seat at the 2019 general election. The winning candidate,Richard Holden,subsequently stated that "she represented a branch of the Labour Party that wasn't mainstream,which wasn't what people thought of as traditional Labour and that's what happened tonight". [18] It was the first time the seat had not returned a Labour MP since its creation in 1950. [19]
In July 2020,the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards ordered Pidcock to repay more than £3,800 after she used Commons stationery to accuse the government of a "betrayal" over the BBC licence fee for over-75s. Pidcock had sent out more than 5,000 letters in September 2019 accusing the Conservatives of a "welfare cut". She said she used a template from a House of Commons department,but had made some changes. The Commissioner said these changes meant the letter "was no longer neutral and objective". Pidcock said it had been an "honest mistake". [20]
Pidcock identifies as a socialist,and supported the policies of party leader Jeremy Corbyn. [21] A strong critic of the Conservative Party,she said that "I go to parliament to be a mouthpiece for my constituents and class". [22] She stated in mid-2017 that Tories were "the enemy" and said she was "disgusted at the way they're running this country". [23] Pidcock did not socialise with Conservative MPs [24] and said that she had "absolutely no intention of being friends with any Tories." [25]
She criticised the Conservative government for doing far too little for working-class people,and said that her then constituency had suffered long-term de-industrialisation and lack of investment,leading to significant financial difficulties for many residents. She highlighted the rise in volunteer organisations to help support people who have been left behind by the state. [26] In December 2017,in a Parliamentary question to the Prime Minister,Theresa May,Pidcock condemned delays to payments under the Universal Credit system in the period just before Christmas,"the toughest financial time" for her constituents. She asked,"Is the roll-out a matter of gross incompetence or calculated cruelty?" [27]
She criticised the lack of proxy voting for pregnant women in Parliament,attending a vote in 2018 whilst in the late stages of pregnancy. [28]
Pidcock described climate change as the "biggest issue facing humanity", [29] and spoke at School Strike for Climate demonstrations. [30]
In early 2020,she led Richard Burgon's unsuccessful campaign to be deputy leader of the Labour Party. [31] That same year Pidcock was appointed as the National Secretary of the People's Assembly Against Austerity. [32] [33]
In November 2020,Pidcock was elected to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party. [34]
In a Labour meeting in March 2021,former Deputy Leader Margaret Beckett,who was unaware her microphone was on,called Pidcock a "silly cow". She subsequently apologised to Pidcock and said the remark was unjustifiable. [35]
In January 2022,Pidcock resigned from the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party in the wake of the Committee's vote to not restore the Labour whip to Jeremy Corbyn and in critique of decisions taken under Keir Starmer's leadership,commenting that there was "an irreconcilable difference between the actions of the Labour Party as it stands and the principles that underpin the way I have been taught to treat people and my idea of what a political organisation should be for" and that,at multiple levels of organisation,the Party had become "hostile territory for socialists". [4]
In March 2022,Pidcock announced that she would not seek to be reselected as the Labour candidate for North West Durham. [36]
Pidcock's former partner is Daniel Kebede,president of the National Education Union. [37] [38] [39] They have one son,born in July 2018. [40] In June 2017,Pidcock said she would accept a council house,but there were none available. She claimed that she was unable to afford the deposit for her first home because of her university debt,so she was renting in the private sector. [41] She bought a house jointly with Kebede in September 2018. [42]
Diane Julie Abbott is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. She served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Home Secretary from 2016 to 2020. She is both the first black woman elected to parliament and the longest-serving black MP. Though she is a member of the Labour Party, she sits in the House of Commons as an independent, having had the whip suspended in April 2023.
Dame Louise Joyce Ellman is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Riverside from 1997 to 2019. She is a member of the Labour Party.
Dawn Petula Butler is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent Central since 2015.
Kathryn Sloan Clark, Baroness Clark of Kilwinning, is a British politician and life peer who has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for North Ayrshire and Arran from 2005 to 2015.
Benjamin David Bradley is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, since the 2017 general election.
Luciana Clare Berger is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament for Liverpool Wavertree from 2010 to 2019. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she was a founding member of The Independent Group, later Change UK, before joining the Liberal Democrats. Berger rejoined Labour in 2023.
Stella Judith Creasy is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for the London constituency of Walthamstow since 2010.
The People's Assembly Against Austerity is a political organisation based in the United Kingdom that was originally set up to end and reverse the country's government-instituted austerity programme.
Angela Rayner is a British politician serving as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020 and Shadow Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since 2023. Rayner has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. She ideologically identifies as a socialist and as being part of Labour's soft left.
Ruth Lauren Smeeth, Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent North from 2015 until 2019. Since 2022 she has been a member of the House of Lords.
Neil Alan John Coyle is a British politician who has served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Bermondsey and Old Southwark since 2015.
Catherine Jane Smith is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lancaster and Fleetwood since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she was a member of the shadow cabinets led by Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer from 2016 to 2021 as Shadow Secretary of State, previously Shadow Minister, for Young People and Democracy.
Naseem Shah is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected at the 2015 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West, winning the seat from George Galloway of the Respect Party. She served in the Opposition frontbench from 2018 to 2023, most recently as Shadow Minister for Crime Reduction.
Jessica Rose Phillips is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she was Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding in Keir Starmer's Opposition frontbench from 2020 to 2023.
Christina Rees is a Welsh politician serving as Member of Parliament for Neath since 2015. She is a member of the Labour and Co-operative parties.
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019 to elect members of the House of Commons. The Conservative Party won a landslide victory with a majority of 80 seats, a net gain of 48, on 43.6% of the popular vote, the highest percentage for any party since the 1979 general election.
Lloyd Cameron Russell-Moyle is a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Kemptown in the 2017 general election. He retained his seat in the 2019 general election. He is a member of the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus.
Laura Smith is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Crewe and Nantwich from 2017 to 2019. In 2017, she defeated the incumbent Conservative Edward Timpson by 48 votes, before losing her seat at the 2019 general election.
Kate Helen Osborne is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jarrow since 2019.
Charlotte Louise Nichols is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Warrington North since the 2019 general election.