1. Maria Eagle was born on 17 February 1961 and is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Liverpool Garston, previously Garston and Halewood, since 1997.
27 Facts About Maria Eagle
1. 2.
Maria Eagle has served as Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry in the Ministry of Defence since July 2024.
3.
Maria Eagle served in the Shadow cabinets of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn.
4.
The twin sister of Angela Eagle, a Labour MP, Eagle was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire to a working-class family and raised in Merseyside.
5.
Maria Eagle studied Philosophy, politics and economics at Pembroke College, Oxford and Law at the College of Law, London.
6.
Under Tony Blair, Maria Eagle was a junior minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education and Skills and Northern Ireland Office.
7.
Maria Eagle was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice and Government Equalities Office under Gordon Brown.
8.
Maria Eagle served in the Shadow cabinet as Shadow Transport Secretary, Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, Shadow Defence Secretary and finally Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary.
9.
Maria Eagle resigned from the Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet in June 2016.
10.
Maria Eagle returned to the frontbench as Shadow Minister for Procurement in 2023.
11.
Maria Eagle was born on 17 February 1961 in Bridlington, the daughter of Shirley, a factory worker, and Andre Eagle, a print worker.
12.
Maria Eagle was educated at St Peter's Church of England School in Formby, Merseyside and Formby High School before attending Pembroke College, Oxford, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, politics and economics in 1983.
13.
Maria Eagle made her maiden speech on 17 June 1997.
14.
Maria Eagle became a member of the Public Accounts Committee and in 1999 she was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department of Health, John Hutton.
15.
Maria Eagle's proposed ban on mink fur farming was defeated as a Private member's bill but subsequently picked up by the government and enacted as the Fur Farming Act 2000.
16.
Maria Eagle was promoted to the Tony Blair government following the 2001 general election as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions.
17.
Maria Eagle was moved to the Ministry of Justice when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007.
18.
Maria Eagle voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs' expenses information secret.
19.
In October 2010 Maria Eagle was elected to the Shadow cabinet of new Labour Party leader Ed Miliband as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet election.
20.
Maria Eagle was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in September 2015 by newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
21.
Maria Eagle said she was surprised by her appointment as she had disagreed with Corbyn's advocacy of unilateral nuclear disarmament and supported the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system.
22.
In January 2016, Maria Eagle was moved to the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
23.
Maria Eagle resigned from the shadow cabinet on 27 June 2016 in the mass resignation of the Shadow Cabinet following the Brexit referendum.
24.
Maria Eagle supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.
25.
Maria Eagle is a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel.
26.
In November 2024, Maria Eagle voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults Bill, which proposes to legalise assisted suicide.
27.
Maria Eagle describes herself as "the straight one", while Angela is a lesbian.