Maria Eagle
Maria Eagle (born
17 February 1961)
British politician and
solicitor. She is the
Labour Party Member of Parliament for
Liverpool Garston. She currently holds the rank of
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the
Northern Ireland Office with responsibility for several portfolios including education. In Northern Ireland she inherited the 'poisoned chalice' of the Northern Ireland Education Order that proposes ending academic selection in the province. Many locals are adamantly opposed to the Order because they see it as undermining an academic system that achieves better results than many other parts of the United Kingdom. The Order will come before the House of Commons and House of Lords in May 2006.
Eagle was born in
Bridlington,
North Yorkshire, the daughter of a printworker, she was educated at
St Peter's Church of England School in
Formby and the Formby High School, before attending
Pembroke College, Oxford where she was awarded a
Bachelor of Arts degree in
Philosophy, Politics and Economics in
1983. She then went to
The College of Law,
London, where she took her law finals in
1990. She was a solicitor in the voluntary sector from
1983, before she joined Brian Thompson & Partners in
Liverpool as an
articled clerk in
1990, before becoming a solicitor with Goldsmith Williams in Liverpool in
1992, before becoming the senior solicitor at Steven Irving & Co also in Liverpool, where she remained until her election to
Westminster.
She joined the Labour Party in
1978, and was elected the secretary of the
Crosby Constituency Labour Party (CLP) for two years in
1983, and was also elected as the campaigns organiser with that CLP for three years in
1993. She unsuccessfully contested the Crosby seat at the
1992 General Election where she was defeated by the sitting
Conservative MP
Malcolm Thornton by 14,806. Eagle was elected to the
House of Commons at the
1997 General Election at Liverpool Garston following the retirement of the veteran Labour MP
Edward Loyden. Eagle held the seat with a majority of 18,417 and has remained the MP there since. She made her
maiden speech on
June 17,
1997. [
1]
In parliament she was a member of the Public Accounts Committee following her initial election, and in
1999 she was appointed the
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the
Minister of State at the
Department of Health John Hutton. She 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, and after the
2005 General Election, she was the Minister for children at the Department for Education and Skills, until the May 2006 reshuffle moved her to Northern Ireland.
Before entering parliament, Eagle concentrated on housing issues whilst a solicitor. When she was first elected to parliament in
1997 she joined her
twin sister,
Angela Eagle, who had been elected at the previous parliament, to serve as probably the first set of twins in the House of Commons, but certainly the first set of women twins. Like her sister, she is a very able
chess player having played for
England, and a keen
cricketer. She has also called for the ban on
mink fur farming.
Liverpool John Lennon Airport, named after the former
Beatles member, is in her constituency.
*
High Time or High Tide for Labour Women? by Maria Eagle and Joni Lovenduski, 1998, Fabian Society Books, ISBN 0554994810
*
The Labour Party - Liverpool Garston official site
*
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Maria Eagle MP*
TheyWorkForYou.com - Maria Eagle MP
