MARIA EAGLE

The shadow Secretary of State for Transport

Transport needs to evolve to meet the challenges of a sustainable future

Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British Labour Party politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Garston and Halewood.

She has held the rank of Minister of State at both the Government Equalities Office and the Ministry of Justice. She was previously a Minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Education and Skills, and the Northern Ireland Office. After the 2010 general election she became the Shadow Solicitor General. On 8 October 2010, Eagle was announced as the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in Ed Miliband's new shadow cabinet.

Maria Eagle

HISTORY

Maria joined the Labour Party in 1978, and was elected the secretary of the Crosby Constituency Labour Party (CLP) for two years in 1983, and was also elected as the campaigns organiser with that CLP for three years in 1993. She unsuccessfully contested the Crosby seat at the 1992 general election where she was defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Malcolm Thornton by 14,806 votes.

For the following election Eagle was selected to stand for Labour in Garston through an all-women shortlist. She was elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 general election at Liverpool Garston following the retirement of the veteran Labour MP Edward Loyden. Eagle held the seat with a majority of 18,417 and remained the MP until the constituency was abolished in 2010. She made her maiden speech on 17 June 1997.


POLITICAL CAREER

In parliament Eagle was a member of the Public Accounts Committee following her initial election, and in 1999 she was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department of Health, John Hutton. She 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, and after the 2005 general 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 more than one department at a time, including a period at the Department for Employment and Learning, on 29 June 2007 she moved to the Ministry of Justice. As part of the reshuffle of Gordon Brown's government in October 2008, she assumed additional responsibility for the Government Equalities Office. In the June 2009 reshuffle she was promoted to Minister of State within the justice department.

When she was first elected to parliament in 1997 she joined her twin sister, Angela Eagle, who had been elected at the previous parliament, to serve as one of the first set of twins in the House of Commons. Another set of sisters, Sylvia Heal and Ann Keen, had both been elected at the 1997 election, also, meaning that neither pair of sisters holds the record for being the first.

She has called for the ban on mink fur farming.

After Labour lost the 2010 general election served in interim Labour leader Harriet Harman's front bench as Shadow Solicitor General and Shadow Justice Minister. 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.

Maria Eagle was nominated for the Stonewall Politician of the Year Award in 2008 for her work to support equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. She was given a score of 93% in favour of lesbian, gay and bisexual equality by Stonewall. On 5 February 2013 MP Maria Eagle voted in favour in the House of Commons Second Reading vote on marriage equality in Britain.

Maria is concerned about housing where over the past 10 years, the number of people renting from a private landlord has increased so much with thousands of ordinary people with a few bob to spare buying as house to rent to take advantage of the crisis. Ms Eagle says that the problem will escalate as waiting lists for social housing grow and more people are priced out of home ownership. This is another social divide with a loophole to block. 

COMMENT: Perhaps lenders should be prevented from lending for such exploitation.

Maria on housing shortages

CONTACT MARIA

Unit House, Speke Boulevard, Liverpool, L24 9HZ

email: maria.eagle.mp@parliament.uk

LINKS

http://www.mariaeaglemp.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Eagle

Maria Eagle on transport Youtube