Maria Eagle | |||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Official portrait, 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry | |||||||||||||||||||||
Assumed office 8 July 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | Keir Starmer | ||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | James Cartlidge | ||||||||||||||||||||
Minister of State for Justice and Equalities [lower-alpha 1] | |||||||||||||||||||||
In office 2 July 2007 –6 May 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | Gordon Brown | ||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Gerry Sutcliffe | ||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Crispin Blunt | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children in Northern Ireland | |||||||||||||||||||||
In office 6 May 2006 –28 June 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Jeff Rooker | ||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Office abolished | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children | |||||||||||||||||||||
In office 17 June 2005 –6 May 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Margaret Hodge | ||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Beverley Hughes | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People | |||||||||||||||||||||
In office 11 June 2001 –17 June 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Margaret Hodge | ||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Anne McGuire | ||||||||||||||||||||
Member of Parliament for Liverpool Garston Garston and Halewood (2010–2024) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Assumed office 1 May 1997 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Eddie Loyden | ||||||||||||||||||||
Majority | 20,104 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Bridlington,East Riding of Yorkshire,England | 17 February 1961||||||||||||||||||||
Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||||||||
Relatives | Angela Eagle (sister) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | |||||||||||||||||||||
Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Garston, previously Garston and Halewood, since 1997. She has served as Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry in the Ministry of Defence since July 2024. [1] She served in the Shadow cabinets of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn.
The twin sister of Angela Eagle, also a Labour MP, Eagle was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire to a working-class family and raised in Merseyside. She studied Philosophy, politics and economics at Pembroke College, Oxford and Law at the College of Law, London. After graduating with her law degree, she worked as an articled clerk and solicitor in both London and Liverpool. After unsuccessfully contesting Crosby in 1992, she was elected as MP for Liverpool Garston at the 1997 general election.
Under Tony Blair, Eagle was a junior minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education and Skills and Northern Ireland Office. She was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice and Government Equalities Office under Gordon Brown. Following the 2010 general election, Eagle became Shadow Solicitor General for England and Wales. She served in the Shadow cabinet as Shadow Transport Secretary, Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, Shadow Defence Secretary and finally Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary. She resigned from the Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet in June 2016. She returned to the frontbench as Shadow Minister for Procurement in 2023.
Maria Eagle was born on 17 February 1961 in Bridlington, [2] the daughter of Shirley ( née Kirk), a factory worker, and André Eagle, a print worker. [3] [4] She was educated at St Peter's Church of England School in Formby, Merseyside and Formby High School before attending Pembroke College, Oxford, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, politics and economics in 1983. [5]
Eagle worked in the voluntary sector from 1983 to 1990, and then went to the College of Law, London, where she took her law finals in 1990, before she joined Brian Thompson & Partners in Liverpool as an articled clerk in 1990. In 1992 she became a solicitor with Goldsmith Williams in Liverpool, and later a Solicitor at Stephen Irving & Co also in Liverpool, where she remained until her election to Westminster. [5]
After joining the Labour Party, Eagle was elected the secretary of the Crosby Constituency Labour Party (CLP) for two years in 1983, [6] and was also elected as the campaigns organiser with that CLP for three years in 1993. [6]
At the 1992 general election, Eagle stood as the Labour Party candidate in Crosby, coming second with 25.7% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MP Malcolm Thornton. [7] [8] [9]
Prior to the 1997 general election, Eagle was selected through an all-women shortlist to stand as the Labour candidate in Liverpool Garston. [10] [11] Eagle was elected to Parliament as MP for Liverpool Garston with 61.3% of the vote and a majority of 18,417. [12] She made her maiden speech on 17 June 1997. [13]
She became a member of the Public Accounts Committee and in 1999 she was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department of Health, John Hutton. Her proposed ban on mink fur farming was defeated as a Private member's bill but subsequently picked up by the government and enacted as the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Act 2000. [14]
Eagle was re-elected as MP for Liverpool Garston at the 2001 general election with an increased vote share of 61.4% and a decreased majority of 12,494. [15]
Eagle was promoted to the Tony Blair government following the 2001 general election as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions.
At the 2005 general election, Eagle was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 54% and a decreased majority of 7,193. [16] Following the election, she was the Minister for Children at the Department for Education and Skills, until the May 2006 reshuffle moved her to Northern Ireland, where she was minister for Employment and Learning.
Eagle was moved to the Ministry of Justice when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007. In September 2008, she was nominated for Stonewall Politician of the Year for her work to support equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. [17] As part of the government reshuffle in October 2008, she assumed additional responsibility for Equalities. In the June 2009 reshuffle, she was promoted to Minister of State. [6]
On 17 May 2009, during the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, The Daily Telegraph revealed that Eagle had claimed £3,500 for the refurbishment of the bathroom of her Liverpool home, then switched her second home designation to a different property four months later. Eagle voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs' expenses information secret. [18]
Prior to the 2010 general election, Eagle's constituency of Liverpool Garston was abolished, and replaced with Garston and Halewood. At the 2010 general election, Eagle was elected to Parliament as MP for Garston and Halewood with 59.5% of the vote and a majority of 16,877. [19]
After the election, she served in interim Labour leader Harriet Harman's frontbench as Shadow Solicitor General for England and Wales and Shadow Minister for Justice. [6] [20] [21] In October 2010 Eagle was elected to the Shadow cabinet of new Labour Party leader Ed Miliband as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet election. [22]
In February 2013, she voted in favour in the House of Commons Second Reading vote on marriage equality in Britain. [23]
At the 2015 general election, Eagle was re-elected as MP for Garston and Halewood with an increased vote share of 69.1% and an increased majority of 27,146. [24] [25]
Eagle was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in September 2015 by newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. [26] [27] She said she was surprised by her appointment as she had disagreed with Corbyn's advocacy of unilateral nuclear disarmament and supported the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system. [28] Tasked with leading Labour's defence review, she said she would not rule out the possibility of it recommending unilateral disarmament. [28] However, she described Corbyn commenting he would not countenance using a nuclear deterrent as "unhelpful" to the policy process. [29]
In January 2016, Eagle was moved to the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. [30] She resigned from the shadow cabinet on 27 June 2016 in the mass resignation of the Shadow Cabinet following the Brexit referendum. [31]
She supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election. [32]
At the snap 2017 general election, Eagle was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 77.7% and an increased majority of 32,149. [33] She was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 72.3% and a decreased majority of 31,624. [34]
She is a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel. [35]
On 15 February 2023, she was appointed as a member of the Privy Council. [36]
In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Procurement. [37]
Due to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Eagle's constituency of Garston and Halewood was abolished, and replaced with Liverpool Garston. At the 2024 general election, Eagle was elected to Parliament as MP for Liverpool Garston with 58.4% of the vote and a majority of 20,104. [38]
Following her initial election, Eagle joined her twin sister Angela in Parliament. [lower-alpha 2] Maria describes herself as "the straight one", while Angela is a lesbian. [40]
Hilary James Wedgwood Benn is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds South, formerly Leeds Central, since 1999. He has served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 2024. Benn previously served as Development Secretary (2003–2007) and Environment Secretary (2007–2010) and as Chairman of the Brexit Select Committee (2016–2021).
Yvette Cooper is a British politician who has served as Home Secretary since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, Cooper has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley, which has previously included Normanton, since 1997.
Dame Angela Eagle DBE is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wallasey since 1992. Eagle has served as Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum since July 2024.
Sir Wayne David is a Welsh politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Caerphilly from 2001 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he was Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party from 1994 to 1998. As a Member of the European Parliament, he represented South Wales from 1989 to 1994 and South Wales Central from 1994 to 1999.
Kevan David Jones is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Durham from 2001 to 2024.
Jon Hedley Trickett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton and Hemsworth since 1996. He was Shadow Lord President of the Council from 2016 to 2020 and served as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2011 to 2013 and 2017 to 2020. He was the Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator under Jeremy Corbyn from 2015 to 2017.
Emily Anne Thornberry, Lady Nugee is a British Labour politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005. She served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales from 2021 until the 2024 UK general election, and previously from 2011 to 2014. Thornberry has also served in a number of other senior positions on Labour's front bench, namely as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2020, Shadow First Secretary of State from 2017 to 2020 and Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade from 2020 to 2021.
Liverpool Garston is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which existed from 1950 and 2010. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Wallasey is a constituency in Merseyside created in 1918 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1992 by Angela Eagle, a member of the Labour Party.
Conor Patrick McGinn is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for St Helens North from 2015 to 2024.
Garston and Halewood was a constituency created in 2010 and was represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Maria Eagle of the Labour Party.
Lisa Eva Nandy is a British Labour Party politician serving as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since 2024. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wigan since 2010. Nandy previously served as Shadow Foreign Secretary, Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, Shadow Energy Secretary and Shadow International Development Minister.
Shabana Mahmood is a British politician and barrister who has been serving as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Ladywood since 2010. Between 2010 and 2024 she held various shadow junior ministerial and shadow cabinet positions under leaders Ed Miliband, Harriet Harman, and Keir Starmer.
Grahame Mark Morris is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Easington since 2010.
Ian Murray is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh South since 2010. He has served as Secretary of State for Scotland since July 2024. He previously served as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland from 2015 to 2016 and again from 2020 to 2024.
William Roffen Esterson is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sefton Central since 2010. He has been Shadow Minister for Roads from 2023 to 2024, and was Shadow Minister for Small Business from 2015 to 2020.
Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham East and Saddleworth since 2011. Abrahams was a member of the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn from 2015 to 2018. She remains in the House of Commons as a backbencher.
Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth is a British former Labour and Co-op politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester South from 2011 to 2024. He had served as Shadow Paymaster General from September 2023. Having lost his seat at the 2024 general election, he was appointed chief executive of the Labour Together thinktank.
Lucy Maria Powell is a British politician who has served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative Parties, she has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Central since 2012.
Joanna Meriel Stevens is a Welsh politician serving as Secretary of State for Wales since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2015, representing Cardiff East since 2024, having previously represented Cardiff Central.