Siobhain McDonagh

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Siobhain Ann McDonagh (born 20 February 1960, London) is a British Labour Member of Parliament for the Mitcham and Morden constituency in London.

She was first elected in 1997 on her third attempt, defeating the Conservative incumbent, Dame Angela Rumbold, who was her opponent in both 1987 and 1992 General Elections.

Prior to being elected to Parliament she worked as a Development Manager for Battersea Churches Housing Trust. She also served as a councillor on London Borough of Merton for Colliers Wood ward between 1982 and 1998, chairing the Housing Committee between 1990 and 1995 where she was instrumental in the rebuilding of Phipps Bridge Estate.

McDonagh is of Irish descent and was educated at the Holy Cross Secondary School and University of Essex. Her sister is Baroness McDonagh of Mitcham and Morden who was General Secretary of the Labour Party between 1998 and 2001 and was instrumental in the modernisation of the Labour Party in both its campaigning and policy.

Siobhain McDonagh has a record of loyalty to the Labour Government and has not broken the Labour whip since being elected in 1997. Locally, she generally has a reputation for being an assidious local Member of Parliament holding a weekly surgery along with regular coffee mornings.

She has been extremely pro-active and instrumental in securing two Academy schools for East Mitcham, an area that suffers from considerable educational underachievement with GCSE results far below the national average. Recently she was also successful along with Merton Council in getting the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, to locate the new critical care hospital at St Helier near the southern edge of her constituency. This overturned a decision by local health chiefs to locate the hospital at the Sutton Hospital site a number of miles away from her Mitcham and Morden constituency.

After the May 2005 General Election she was appointed as PPS to the Secretary of State for Defence and from May 2006 Secretary of State for Home Affairs, Dr. John Reid.