Mary Creagh

Mary Helen Creagh (born 2 December 1967) is a British politician. She is the Labour Member of Parliament for Wakefield.

Mary Creagh was born and brought up in Coventry of Irish parentage, her father a car factory worker and her mother a primary school teacher, She was educated locally at the Bishop Ullathorne Comprehensive School in Coventry before winning a scholarship to attend Pembroke College, Oxford where she studied modern language. She finished her studies at the London School of Economics with a MSc in European Studies. She has worked with the European Parliament in Brussels and the European Youth Forum. She taught entrepreneurship at the Cranfield University School of Management from 1997 until her election to Westminster, and spent seven years as a trustee with Rathbone, a national charity.

She was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Islington in 1998, becoming the Labour group leader (2000-2004), before standing down from the council in 2005. She was elected as an MP at the 2005 General Election when she succeeded the retiring David Hinchliffe. Mary Creagh was elected with a majority of 5,154 and has remained the MP there since. She made her maiden speech on May 25, 2005 using the occasion to raise issues of poverty in her constituency. She also remembered the locally born sculptor Barbara Hepworth.[1] She was a member of the Human Rights Select Committee from 2005 until 2007, and has been the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Health minister, Andy Burnham, since 2006.

She has been married to Adrian since 2001 and they have a son, Clement (named after the former Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee) and they live in the centre of Wakefield. She is fluent in French and Italian and enjoys cycling and yoga. She is a member of the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union.

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by David Hinchliffe	Member of Parliament for Wakefield 2005 – present	Incumbent