Mary Creagh

Mary Helen Creagh (born 2 December 1967) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wakefield from 2005 to 2019.

Creagh was born and raised in Coventry, Warwickshire, where she attended Bishop Ullathorne Roman Catholic School.

She studied Modern Languages at Pembroke College, Oxford and European Studies at the London School of Economics.

After interning in Brussels, she worked as a lecturer and charity trustee.

She began her political career serving on Islington London Borough Council from 1998 to 2005.

Creagh was elected as a councillor for the London Borough of Islington in 1998, representing Highbury West ward (named Highbury from 1998 until 2002), and served as the Labour Group Leader for five years during a period when the party was in opposition locally.

During this time, she knocked on doors and ran a campaign office for future party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

In 2002, Creagh formally alleged cronyism in the appointment of the Islington Council chief executive by five Liberal Democrat councillors thus triggering an investigation by the Standards Board for England.

After the longest-ever investigation by the Standards Board, her complaint was rejected.

Creagh was criticised by the tribunal as being "heavily influenced by her political motives" and that she was an "insensitive witness, lacking in balanced judgment and one who was prepared to make assumptions about honesty and integrity of others without any proper basis".

However, Creagh defended herself, saying she "blew the whistle because I believed the Liberal Democrats were not meeting the standards we expect from people in public office. I invite people to look at my evidence and draw their own conclusions".

She moved to West Yorkshire after she was first elected as MP for Wakefield in the 2005 general election.

She stood down from Islington Council in 2005 upon her election to parliament.

She won the seat in 2005 with a majority of 5,154.

She made her maiden speech in parliament on 25 May 2005 using the occasion to raise issues of poverty in her constituency.

She also mentioned locally-born sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

Creagh successfully introduced a Children's Food Bill in 2005 which sought to introduce minimum nutritional standards for all school meals and take fizzy drinks and sugary snacks out of school vending machines.

The Liberal Democrat councillors involved lost their seats at the 2006 elections when their party lost control of the council.

Creagh succeeded the retiring David Hinchliffe as MP for Wakefield.

Both of these measures were accepted by the government and became law under the Education and Inspections Act 2006.

In 2006, Creagh was made parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Creagh launched a campaign in 2006 aimed at preventing scalding injuries in the home.

She brought together medical experts, campaign groups and victims of scalding injuries to lobby the government to change the building regulations to prevent people being severely scalded by hot water.

The coalition pressured the government to make the fitting of a water temperature regulating device, such as a thermostatic mixing valve (TMV), compulsory in new bathrooms in England.

Shortly after entering the House of Commons, she became a member of the Human Rights Select Committee, leaving the committee in 2007.

She is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

In the 2007 Labour Party leadership election, she backed Gordon Brown.

From 2007 to 2009, she was Chair of the Labour Movement for Europe succeeding Chris Bryant and being succeeded by Richard Corbett.

Between 2007 and 2010, she was the PPS to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

In June 2009, she left her role as PPS to Burnham when she was appointed as an assistant government whip in the Department for Health.

After Labour's defeat in 2010, Creagh was appointed to Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

She was then moved to Shadow Transport Secretary in 2013 and Shadow International Development Secretary in 2014.

Following Miliband's resignation, she announced she would run for Leader of the Labour Party in the 2015 leadership election although she later withdrew her candidacy.

She resigned from the frontbench following the election as Labour leader of Jeremy Corbyn.

Creagh became chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee in 2016 but lost her Wakefield seat to the Conservative Party candidate Imran Ahmad Khan at the 2019 general election.

After losing her seat, she was appointed as chief executive of national walking charity Living Streets in September 2020.

Of Irish descent, Creagh was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, where her father was a car factory worker and her mother a primary school teacher.

She was educated at the comprehensive Bishop Ullathorne Roman Catholic School in Coventry and read Modern Languages at Pembroke College, Oxford, graduating as MA (Oxon).

After pursuing European Studies at the London School of Economics (PhD), she worked in Brussels for four years, first as an intern at the European Parliament and then for the European Youth Forum.

She lectured in entrepreneurship at the Cranfield School of Management and served for seven years as a trustee of national charity Rathbone.