Miriam Cates

Miriam Joy Cates (born 23 August 1982) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Penistone and Stocksbridge since the 2019 general election.

She is a member of the Conservative Party.

Cates was born and raised in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

She grew up in a Christian family and has two younger brothers.

Her father was a general practitioner, while her mother, a mathematician, was a homemaker.

Although her parents had no particular interest in politics, Cates was drawn to the field at an early age, including listening to the Today program on the radio from the age of 11.

Her keen interest in politics led her to also become a young fan of the Westminster Hour.

Whilst at primary school, she was "raised with rhymes about how much people hated Margaret Thatcher."

She then attended King Edward VII School, a comprehensive school, where she was a straight-A student.

She reports that the allegedly "Leftist" ethic of her school turned her towards conservative ideas.

Initially, she intended to become a concert pianist.

Cates went on to study Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, where she earned a degree in genetics.

On her gap year after her Cambridge studies, she met her now-husband Dave Cates at a church in Sheffield.

She went on to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Sheffield Hallam University, and worked as a biology teacher at Tapton School in Sheffield.

As such, Cates became the first Conservative MP to win in South Yorkshire since 1992.

After her election, it was reported that a mobile app launched in 2014 by Redemption Media, a company co-owned by Cates and her husband, charged foodbanks for the services that it provided.

Cates commented on this by stating that the app had been developed for free, and that the first foodbank to use it had not been charged.

After the app was expanded to other foodbanks, there was a set-up charge which was used to help cover development and training costs, and that by joining the app they also received a complimentary subscription to JustGiving.

A councilor at Bradfield Parish Council since 2015, Cates is finance director of the award-winning software company Redemption Media, which she and her husband founded and own together.

After moving to Oughtibridge, a village north of Sheffield, Cates joined the local Parent–Teacher Association (PTA).

She started organising nights off for busy mothers and helping with the playgroup at her local church.

Speaking on a podcast in 2021, Cates said of that time: "I got a sense of what you could achieve if you’re passionate about your community”. Cates was elected in 2015 as a parish councillor for Oughtibridge Ward on Bradfield Parish Council, which, at one point involved her campaigning to save local parkland. She was re-elected in 2019 and resigned her seat in 2021. Cates stood as a Conservative candidate for Stannington ward in the 2018 Sheffield City Council election and joined the party in the same year. She received 898 votes and finished third behind the Liberal Democrats candidates.

She had previously supported the UK remaining a member of the European Union in the 2016 referendum but, during the election campaign, commented she had since changed her mind and supported Brexit.

Though unsuccessful in her bid, she later said she enjoyed campaigning, and decided to go to the next Conservative party conference.

In an interview, Cates describes a family friend asking her to stand as a Conservative candidate for Penistone & Stocksbridge in October 2018.

At that conference, in 2019, Cates met Anne Jenkin, who was recruiting for women candidates, and identified a seat near her home.

Cates was subsequently selected, campaigned, and elected as MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge in the 2019 general election with a majority of 7,210 (14.5%) on a swing of 8.6% from Labour to the Conservatives.

Cates has been a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee since March 2020 and the Education Select Committee since October 2021.

She also co-chairs the Stocksbridge Towns Fund with local property developer Mark Dransfield.

She was elected to the 1922 Committee on 11 July 2022.

She supported Suella Braverman in the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election won by Liz Truss, who resigned in October 2022, and Rishi Sunak in the subsequent October 2022 Conservative leadership election.

She defended Braverman when Braverman attracted fierce criticism for an op-ed that accused London's Metropolitan Police of being more lenient with left-wing pro-Palestine protesters than supporters of Israel.

Braverman had been advised not to publish the op-ed, but did so anyway, costing her her cabinet position.

Cates wrote: "Suella Braverman’s views may be distasteful to Westminster liberals but they're utterly mainstream in the rest of UK".

As of December 2023, she is under investigation by the parliamentary commissioner for standards over claims she has caused "significant damage to the reputation" of the Commons and its members.

Neither she, nor the public, have been informed as to what the allegation refers to.

Cates has been described as a "radical traditionalist" who feels that conservatism has become unnecessarily embittered, and that there is "too much whinging on he right".

Cates established the New Social Covenant Unit with fellow Conservative MP Danny Kruger in 2021 with the principal purpose of promoting policy that would "strengthen families, communities, and the nation".

In October 2021, Cates wrote an article in The Daily Telegraph stating "If we erode the very concept of women – for example by saying that trans women are women, or by denying the importance of biological sex – we erase the rights of women."

When asked about the article in an interview for GB News, she said that she did not oppose trans women who had undergone sex reassignment therapy from having equivalent rights, but did oppose self-identification and the concept of gender fluidity as she claimed that these posed a danger to women.