Kerry McCarthy

Biography:

Kerry McCarthy was re-elected MP for Bristol East on May 7th 2015 with 18148 votes, taking 39.3% of the vote.

Kerry was first elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Bristol East in May 2005. She lives in the Redcliffe area of Bristol, and has a constituency office in St. George.

One of six children, Kerry attended comprehensive school in Luton before going on to study Russian, Politics and Linguistics at Liverpool University and to take her law exams in London. She became actively involved in the Labour Party in the early 1990s, becoming Chair and then Secretary of her local constituency party and Vice-Chair of the East of England Regional Board.

She served five years as a councillor on Luton Borough Council, and four years as a director of the local authority-owned Luton Airport. From 1998 until her election to Parliament in May 2005 Kerry was also a member of Labour’s National Policy Forum and its Economic Policy Commission.

Before being elected to Parliament Kerry worked as a lawyer and on political campaigns. A qualified solicitor, she began her legal career in the late 1980s working at a magistrates’ court and a Legal Aid firm, but then moved to work in the corporate/banking sector and became a specialist in financial markets law, working on cross-border transactions on behalf of a range of international clients.

More recently, she worked for the Britain in Europe campaign and as Head of Public Policy at a consultancy specialising in transport issues.

Kerry is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union, the Co-operative Party, the Fabian Society, the Howard League for Penal Reform, and the Labour Animal Welfare Society.

On being elected to Parliament in 2005, Kerry was appointed a member of the influential Treasury Select Committee, and was involved in its inquiries into financial inclusion, globalisation and the role of the IMF, and the administration of tax credits. She has also sat on two Finance Bill committees, as well as the UK Borders Bill Committee, the Offender Management Bill Committee and the Mental Health Bill Committee.

In April 2007 Kerry was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Rosie Winterton, Minister for Health Services, and helped her steer the Mental Health Bill through the Commons.

Kerry has been Parliamentary Private Secretary to Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development, and in October 2011 she was appointed Shadow Foreign Office Minister.

Kerry is also Chair of the South West Group of Labour MPs, secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Somaliland, a member of Labour’s National Policy Forum, and lead contact for the End Child Poverty campaign amongst Labour MPs in parliament.

Kerry’s main policy areas of interest are: the economy; tackling poverty; international aid and trade; transport; and crime and justice.

Constituency: Bristol East

Date of Birth: 26/03/1965

Email: kerry.mccarthy.mp@parliament.uk

Party: Labour

Personal Website: www.kerrymccarthymp.org

Westminster Address: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Westminster Tel: 020 7219 2359

Twitter: twitter.com/KerryMP

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kerry4mp