16 Facts About Ann Coffey

Margaret Ann Coffey is a British politician who was Member of Parliament for Stockport from 1992 to 2019.

Ann Coffey attended Walsall College of Education where she was awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1971 and qualified as a teacher, and the University of Manchester where she completed her Master of Science in psychiatric social work at the School of Medicine.

Ann Coffey began her career as a trainee social worker with Walsall Social Services in 1971.

Ann Coffey contested the parliamentary seat of Cheadle at the 1987 General Election, and finished in third place, some 25,000 votes behind the sitting Conservative MP Stephen Day.

Ann Coffey was selected to contest the Conservative-held marginal Stockport constituency at the 1992 General Election; she defeated the sitting Conservative MP Tony Favell by 1,422 votes and has remained the MP for the seat since then.

When Labour won the 1997 General Election, Ann Coffey was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Ann Coffey was the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Runaway and Missing Children and Adults.

Ann Coffey tabled a series of amendments to the Serious Crime Bill in 2015 to remove all references to child prostitution.

In 2015, Ann Coffey was criticised over voting for airstrikes against Syria.

Ann Coffey went on to conduct a high-profile campaign against the criminal exploitation of children.

Ann Coffey particularly focused on the use of vulnerable children and young people in County Lines drugs operations, whereby children are groomed by criminals and forced to transport and supply drugs from one area to another.

In January 2018, Ann Coffey conducted an independent survey of all 45 police forces asking if there had been an increase in violence connected to County Lines.

Ann Coffey campaigned for the children used and trapped in County Lines to be seen as victims, not criminals and for early interventions by agencies to prevent them becoming embedded in gangs.

Ann Coffey called for more use of the human trafficking and slavery laws, which carry heavy penalties against gangs who use children as drug mules.

On 18 February 2019, Coffey left the Labour Party in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's policies on Brexit and what she described as Labour's failure to deal with antisemitism, and joined The Independent Group, before leaving parliament in the 2019 general election, having announced her departure on Twitter.

Ann Coffey married Thomas Coffey in 1973 in Pontefract and they have a daughter.