Kate Green

Katherine Anne Green OBE (born 2 May 1960) is a British politician, serving as Greater Manchester's Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime from January 2023. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Stretford and Urmston between 2010 and 2022. A member of the Labour Party, she was Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities from 2015 to 2016 and Shadow Secretary of State for Education from 2020 to 2021. Green served as Chair of the Committee on Privileges and Committee on Standards from 2018 to 2020. She resigned her seat in parliament in November 2022 after being nominated as Greater Manchester's deputy mayor for policing and crime.

Under Ed Miliband's leadership, she was a junior Shadow Equalities Minister from 2011 to 2013 and Shadow Disabled People Minister from 2013 to 2015. Green was promoted to the shadow cabinet after Jeremy Corbyn became Opposition Leader in 2015, as Shadow Women and Equalities Minister. After losing confidence in Corbyn's leadership, she resigned in 2016 and chaired Owen Smith’s unsuccessful leadership challenge.

Green was elected to chair the Privileges and Standards Committees in 2018, and stood down upon her appointment as Shadow Child Poverty Strategy Minister in April 2020. Keir Starmer appointed her Shadow Education Secretary in June 2020, but she left the front bench in the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle.

Early life

Katherine Anne Green was born on 2 May 1960 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her parents were Jessie Craig (''née'' Bruce) and Maurice Green, who was Jewish. She attended Currie High School and the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree.

Career

After university, Green began a career at Barclays Bank, working for the organisation from 1982 to 1997. From 1997 to 1999 she worked as a Whitehall and Industry Group secondee to the Home Office.

Green was employed as Director of the National Council for One Parent Families between 2000 and 2004, then taking up the post of Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) until 2009. Alongside this, Green was a member, then chair, of the London Child Poverty Commission from 2006 to 2009.

Green also served as a magistrate in the City of London between 1993 and 2009.

Green joined the Labour Party in 1990 and stood unsuccessfully in the 1997 General Election as the candidate for the Greater London constituency of Cities of London and Westminster. She contested the 2000 London Assembly election in the West Central constituency, again not being elected.

Parliamentary career

In 2009, Green was selected as the candidate for Stretford and Urmston through an all-women shortlist following Beverley Hughes's announcement that she would not be seeking re-election. She was elected as Member of Parliament on 6 May 2010, securing 48.6% of the vote and increasing the majority Hughes gained in the 2005 general election.

Since entering Parliament, Green has been elected as a Vice-Chair of the Labour Party's National Policy Forum and served as the chairman of the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party.

In November 2011, Green was criticised for failing to declare an interest when tabling an amendment to a bill. Green had neglected to mention her membership of the GMB trade union when attempting to amend the Legal Aid Bill. In a statement in Parliament Green apologised, saying: "I was advised on those amendments by the GMB trade union. My entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests makes clear my membership of and relationship with that union, but I regret that I did not draw attention to that last week in the Chamber because the amendments did not relate specifically to the union, but to the rights of individual employees." The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, accepted Green's apology, describing it as "most courteous" and insisting that the matter had been resolved.

In February 2012, Green complained about a beer sold in the House of Commons Stranger's Bar, called Top Totty. The advertising plate on the pump handle featured an image of a bikini-clad bunny girl, which Green said "demeaned women". Leader of the House Sir George Young upheld her complaint and had the beer removed. The beer, brewed in Stafford by Slater's, had been recommended to the House in 2007 by Labour MP for Stafford David Kidney after a visit to Slater's Brewery.

Green was re-elected in the 2015 general election on an increased voter turnout, managing to increase both the Labour Party's share and majority.

Green became chair of Owen Smith's leadership campaign challenging Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 leadership election. Green wrote in the ''New Statesman'' in September 2016: "Even when Jeremy gets that there's a problem, his solutions too often reinforce rather than address the root causes of gender inequality".

Green held her seat at the 2017 and 2019 general elections. She announced in February 2022 that she would be standing down at the next general election. On 9 November 2022, she was announced as Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham's nominee to succeed Baroness Bev Hughes as Deputy Mayor for Policing; in order to take up the post, she resigned her seat in Parliament on 10 November.

Frontbench Opposition career

Following a reshuffle of Labour's shadow ministerial team in October 2011, Green was promoted to junior Shadow Minister for Equalities. In October 2013, Green became Shadow Minister for Disabled People.

Following Jeremy Corbyn's election as Leader of the Labour Party, Green was promoted again to the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet serving as Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities. In a March 2016 speech, Corbyn advocated the decriminalisation of the sex industry, to which Green commented "without any discussion or consultation with his shadow cabinet, with me as his shadow minister for women and equalities, with women in the PLP or, to the best of my knowledge, with anyone in the wider Labour Party". She resigned from this position on 27 June 2016.

Green was a supporter of the Remain campaign during the EU referendum

In April 2020, Green was appointed as Shadow Minister for Child Poverty Strategy by new party leader Keir Starmer. In June 2020, she was appointed as Shadow Education Secretary, replacing Rebecca Long-Bailey. Green left the front bench in the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle.

Parliamentary Committees

Green has been a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, European Scrutiny Committee, Justice Select Committee, Committee of Privileges, Commons Select Committee on Standards (which she chaired from October 2018 to November 2019 and January 2020 to May 2020), the Home Affairs Select Committee, and the Liaison Committee.

All-party Parliamentary Groups

Green is an officer of the following All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), as of May 2020:

* Migration (chair)
* Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers (chair)
* Women in the Penal System (chair)
* Learning Disability (vice-chair)
* Legal Aid (vice-chair)
* Srebrenica (vice-chair)
* Valproate and other Anti-Epileptic Drugs in Pregnancy (vice-chair)
* Dalits (treasurer)

Personal life and honours

Green married Richard Duncan Mabb in 1985; the couple divorced in 2006. Her recreations include theatre, books, food and swimming.

She is a member of the GMB and Unite trade unions, the Fawcett Society, the Fabian Society (which she chaired from 2016 to 2018), and CPAG.

She is a past trustee of the Friends Provident Foundation, Institute for Fiscal Studies, Family and Parenting Institute, Avenues Youth Project, and End Child Poverty.

Green was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for "services to welfare work" as part of the 2005 New Year Honours, where her work in the CPAG and membership of the National Employment Panel was recognised.

Selected bibliography

*

References

External links

Personal website
*
Profile on LabourListStretford and Urmston election results 2010 – Guardian.co.ukKate Green Speaks to Catch21

, -

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Kate
1960 births
Living people
Scottish people of Jewish descent
21st-century British women politicians
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Barclays people
British people of Jewish descent
Chairs of the Fabian Society
Jewish British politicians
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at Currie High School
Politicians from Edinburgh
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present
21st-century English women
21st-century English people