Margaret Moran

Margaret Mary Moran (born 24 April 1955) is a former Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.

She subsequently attended the University of Birmingham, gaining a Bachelor of Social Science degree in geography and sociology in 1978.

She also attended Hackney College.

Moran initially worked as a teacher.

In 1984, she became a local councillor in the London Borough of Lewisham; later she became leader of the council between 1993 and 1995.

At the same time, Moran stood in the 1992 general election in Carshalton and Wallington, finishing in third place.

Moran was also the director of "Housing for Women' a housing association, national president of the housing branch of the NALGO trade union, vice chair of the Association of London Authorities and vice chair and chair of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities.

Moran was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South from the 1997 general election to 2010.

For the 1997 election, she was selected to stand for Labour in Luton South through an all-women shortlist.

At the election she was elected, gaining the seat from the Conservatives.

Following her re-election in the 2001 election she was promoted to the position of assistant whip attached to HM Treasury between 2003 and 2005.

While serving as a whip, Moran was obliged to vote along with the government line, and did so.

There had been significant opposition among Luton's large Muslim population to her support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Moran supported plans to negotiate with Spain over the status of Gibraltar, describing Gibraltar as "effectively an outpost colony within a major European partner", although she accepted that any change must have the consent of Gibraltarians.

Moran's claims for expenses 2004–05 were £73,198, higher than those of Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins.

She was re-elected for a third term in the 2005 election, with a reduced majority.

In the run up to the 2005 general election, Moran sent out thousands of unsolicited letters to her constituents.

Following a complaint to the Commons authorities about one of the letters, the Assistant Serjeant at Arms Mark Harvey said the letter was "a reasonable solicited response", but was against the spirit of the regulations.

He went on to say, "Having discussed this with Ms Moran, I'm confident that there will be no repetition in future."

The regulations have since changed and there is now a limit on the postage costs an MP can claim for.

From 2006, Moran was a member of the Home Affairs Committee, where she took an interest in helping female victims of domestic violence and in issues of child protection.

She was for a time chairwoman of the All-Party Group on Domestic Violence and worked with Women's Aid to launch online projects such as WomenSpeak and KidSpeak.

Moran's interest in child protection led her to go to the Internet Governance Forum at Rio de Janeiro in November 2007 and she was involved in the launch of the UK Internet Governance Forum.

on 6 March 2008.

Moran became a member of the Hansard Society Commission on the Scrutiny of Parliament.

She also worked with the Fawcett Society producing a publication on women's participation on the internet.

However, it was not until May 2009 that the full details of her claims were revealed.

On 8 May 2009, The Daily Telegraph revealed Moran spent £22,500 of taxpayers' money treating dry rot at her and her partner's seaside house in Southampton, about 100 miles from her Luton South constituency, only days after switching her "second home" to his Southampton property.

Moran's partner had worked in Southampton for 20 years when the claim was made.

The parliamentary authorities were concerned that the work broke the "spirit" of the rules,

but advised that it was permissible on three occasions.

The Telegraph said the expenses "appear to be among the most questionable of any MP," and the BBC said the claims caused "widespread public anger".

Moran had previously switched her second-home allowance from Luton to London and renovated both.

These caused Moran to announce she would not stand in the 2010 general election, and she was later barred from doing so by the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.

Speaking in Parliament, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown described Moran's behaviour as "totally unacceptable".

Moran had particularly high spending on stationery and postage and on staff costs.

In November 2012, jurors at Southwark Crown Court ruled that she had falsified her parliamentary expenses; she had been unable to stand trial because of mental health issues, but the case was nevertheless heard without her.

Her fraudulent claims totalled more than £53,000, the highest amount by any politician in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal.

Moran was born in Bethnal Green, to Irish parents Patrick and Mary (née Murphy).

She went to St Ursula's High School (now St Ursula's Convent School), a Roman Catholic girls' school in Greenwich, and then to St Mary's College (now St Mary's University College), a Roman Catholic college in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham.