Chancellor Alistair Darling Majority 10,061 (25.4%) Party Labour Party Preceded by Anthony Favell Role British Politician | Succeeded by Greg Hands Name Ann Coffey Preceded by Ann Keen Nationality British | |
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Full Name Margaret Ann Brown Born 31 August 1946 (age 77)
Inverness, Invernessshire, Scotland, UK ( 1946-08-31 ) Books A Guide to Transforming School Grounds, School Grounds in a Box Education London South Bank University, University of Manchester Similar People Mary Creagh, Vernon Coaker, Hilary Benn, Stella Creasy Profiles | ||
Labour s ann coffey reveals abuse she received after syria vote result
Margaret Ann Coffey (née Brown; born 31 August 1946) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockport since 1992.
Contents
- Labour s ann coffey reveals abuse she received after syria vote result
- Unaiti meets ann coffey stockport mp to talk about climate change
- Early life
- Parliamentary career
- 2016 motion of no confidence in Labour leadership
- Personal life
- References
Unaiti meets ann coffey stockport mp to talk about climate change
Early life
Born as Margaret Ann Brown, the daughter of a Royal Air Force officer, in Inverness, she attended Nairn Academy; Bodmin County Grammar School (closed in 1973); Bushey Grammar School and the Polytechnic of South Bank, London, where she was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology in 1967, and was elected vice president of the students' union).
She attended Walsall College of Education where she was awarded a PGCE 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.
She began her career as a trainee social worker with the Walsall Social Services in 1971. In 1972 she became a social worker with the Birmingham City Council, moving to Gwynedd County Council in 1973 and the Metropolitan Borough of Wolverhampton in 1974, then to the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in 1975, moving once more in 1982 to the Cheshire County Council. In 1988 she became the fostering team leader with the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham until her election to parliament. Ann resides in Stockport as well as having a London home.
Parliamentary career
Politically, Coffey was elected as a councillor to the Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council in 1984 and became its Labour group leader 1988-92, stepping down from the council in 1994. She 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. She was selected to contest the Conservative held marginal Stockport constituency at the 1992 General Election and she defeated the sitting Conservative MP Tony Favell by 1,422 and has remained the MP there since. She made her maiden speech on 12 May 1992.
In her first term in Parliament, Coffey served initially as a member of the trade and industry select committee until she was promoted by Tony Blair to become an Opposition whip in 1995 and became an Opposition health spokeswoman in 1996. When Labour won the 1997 General Election, Coffey was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Prime Minister Tony Blair. In 1998, she became PPS to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Alistair Darling and was his assistant from 2002-6 in his capacity as the Secretary of State for Transport and thereafter as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.
Following the resignation of Tony Blair as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007, Coffey became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling.
During the expenses scandal of 2009 it was revealed that Anne Coffey claimed £1000 per month for the interest on the mortgage of her London home and £160 per month for a cleaner. In addition to her salary of £60,000 in 2007 she claimed £150,000 in expenses that year.
Coffey chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group for Runaway and Missing Children and Adults, and has criticised perceived failings in authorities in responding to signs of abuse and exploitation. She chaired an inquiry into the issue of child sexual abuse following widespread criticism of the investigation of the Rochdale sex trafficking gang. In January 2015 Coffey tabled amendments calling for the removal of the term "child prostitution" from UK legislation, arguing the term implied children were complicit in their own abuse and the change was necessary to change authorities' attitudes.
2016 motion of no confidence in Labour leadership
Together with Margaret Hodge she submitted a letter to the Parliamentary Labour Party chairman requesting a vote on a motion of no confidence in the party leader Jeremy Corbyn on 25 June 2016, two days after Britain voted to leave the European Union.
Personal life
She married Thomas Coffey in 1973 in Pontefract and they have a daughter. They divorced in 1989 and she has since remarried to Peter Saraga, vice-chair of the University of Sussex's University Council and a former managing director at Philips Research Labs UK.