Mary Helen Creagh was born on 2 December 1967 and is a British politician who served as chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee from 2016 to 2019.
38 Facts About Mary Creagh
2.
Mary Creagh studied Modern Languages at Pembroke College, Oxford and European Studies at the London School of Economics.
3.
Mary Creagh began her political career serving on Islington London Borough Council from 1998 to 2005.
4.
Mary Creagh moved to West Yorkshire after she was first elected as MP for Wakefield in the 2005 general election.
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Mary Creagh was then moved to Shadow Transport Secretary in 2013 and Shadow International Development Secretary in 2014.
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Mary Creagh resigned from the frontbench following the election as Labour leader of Jeremy Corbyn.
7.
Mary Creagh became chair of the Environmental Audit Select Committee in 2016 but lost her Wakefield seat to the Conservative Party candidate Imran Ahmad Khan at the 2019 general election.
8.
Mary Creagh was educated at the comprehensive Bishop Ullathorne Roman Catholic School in Coventry and read Modern Languages at Pembroke College, Oxford, graduating as MA.
9.
Mary Creagh lectured in entrepreneurship at the Cranfield School of Management and served for seven years as a trustee of national charity Rathbone.
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Mary Creagh was elected as a councillor for the London Borough of Islington in 1998, representing Highbury West ward, and served as the Labour Group Leader for five years during a period when the party was in opposition locally.
11.
Mary Creagh stood down from Islington Council in 2005 upon her election to parliament.
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In 2002, Mary Creagh formally alleged cronyism in the appointment of the Islington Council chief executive by five Liberal Democrat councillors thus triggering an investigation by the Standards Board for England.
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Mary Creagh was criticised by the tribunal as being "heavily influenced by her political motives" and that she was an "insensitive witness, lacking in balanced judgment and one who was prepared to make assumptions about honesty and integrity of others without any proper basis".
14.
Mary Creagh succeeded the retiring David Hinchliffe as MP for Wakefield.
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Mary Creagh won the seat in 2005 with a majority of 5,154.
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Mary Creagh made her maiden speech in parliament on 25 May 2005 using the occasion to raise issues of poverty in her constituency.
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Mary Creagh is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.
18.
Mary Creagh successfully introduced a Children's Food Bill in 2005 which sought to introduce minimum nutritional standards for all school meals and take fizzy drinks and sugary snacks out of school vending machines.
19.
In 2006, Mary Creagh was made parliamentary private secretary to Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
20.
Mary Creagh launched a campaign in 2006 aimed at preventing scalding injuries in the home.
21.
Mary Creagh brought together medical experts, campaign groups and victims of scalding injuries to lobby the government to change the building regulations to prevent people being severely scalded by hot water.
22.
In 2009, as Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity, Mary Creagh called on Justice Secretary Jack Straw to tighten British Law so people accused of genocide could be prosecuted in the UK.
23.
Mary Creagh said there was an "impunity gap" which allowed people accused of terrible crimes in places like Rwanda and Bosnia to escape justice and live freely in Britain.
24.
Mary Creagh backed David Miliband in the 2010 Labour Party leadership election.
25.
On 8 October 2010, Mary Creagh was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
26.
At the Labour Party's Annual Conference in September 2011, Mary Creagh launched the campaign Back the Apple.
27.
In 2013, Mary Creagh was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Transport.
28.
In November 2014, Mary Creagh became Shadow Secretary of State for International Development in Ed Miliband's final reshuffle prior to the 2015 general election.
29.
On 14 May 2015, Mary Creagh announced her candidacy for Leader of the Labour Party after Ed Miliband's resignation following Labour's general election defeat.
30.
In February 2016, Mary Creagh became chair of the Environmental Audit Committee.
31.
Mary Creagh supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.
32.
Mary Creagh voted against the triggering of Article 50 in February 2017.
33.
In November 2018, Mary Creagh expressed sympathy for Labour MP Angela Smith after Smith's Constituency Labour Party passed a vote of no confidence in her.
34.
In February 2019, Mary Creagh was invited to join breakaway Labour MPs when they formed The Independent Group, later Change UK, but declined.
35.
In June 2019, Mary Creagh called on the Labour Party to express "full-throated support" for a second EU referendum.
36.
Mary Creagh was later defeated at the 2019 general election by the Conservative candidate Imran Ahmad Khan.
37.
Mary Creagh is working as a visiting professor at Cranfield University and has given speeches for the OECD in Paris and Chatham House in Tokyo.
38.
Mary Creagh was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 Birthday Honours for parliamentary and political services.