13 Facts About Charlotte Atkins

Charlotte Atkins was educated at the Colchester County High School, and is a graduate of the London School of Economics, gaining a BSc in Economics.

Charlotte Atkins worked as a community relations officer with the Luton Community Research Council from 1974 to 1976, before joining the trade union movement.

In 1990, Charlotte Atkins unsuccessfully contested the Eastbourne by-election caused by the assassination of the Conservative MP Ian Gow by the Provisional IRA.

Charlotte Atkins entered the House of Commons at the 1997 general election in the Labour landslide as the Member of Parliament for Staffordshire Moorlands, a seat held previously by the retiring David Knox and which had been Conservative-held for 27 years.

Charlotte Atkins was promoted to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport in 2004, but was dropped after the 2005 general election.

Charlotte Atkins was largely loyal to the Labour government during her time in Parliament and rarely rebelled.

Charlotte Atkins was vice-chair of the All-Party Hill Farmers Group, and took part in a series of adjournment debates on government funding for inland waterways.

Charlotte Atkins is a volunteer for the Manchester-based British Fluoridisation Society.

Charlotte Atkins lost her seat at the 2010 general election to Karen Bradley of the Conservative Party.

In March 2012, Charlotte Atkins was appointed as the chair of the Central Shires Canal and River Trust Partnership Board.

Charlotte Atkins was heavily involved in campaigning for more funds and the regeneration of England's waterways while in Parliament, and won the first ever Inland Waterways Association Parliamentarian of the Year Award in 2008.

Charlotte Atkins was elected as a councillor for the Leek North ward of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council in a 2012 by-election, and continues to represent the ward.

Charlotte Atkins married Gus Brain in June 1990 in Bromley and has one child, Emma, born in October 1986.