Christine McCafferty (''née'' Livesley; born 14 October 1945) is a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for

Calder Valley Calder may refer to: People * Calder (surname) * Clan Calder, a Highland Scottish clan Places * Calder, Tasmania, Australia, a locality * Calder, Edmonton, a neighbourhood in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada * Calder, Saskatchewan, Canada ...

from

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

when she retired.

Early life

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, she attended

Whalley Range High School Whalley Range 11–18 High School, also known as Whalley Range High School is a girls' school in Whalley Range, Manchester, England. History The school was founded in 1891, and was bought by the Education Committee of the Corporation in 1908 w ...

in Whalley Range, Manchester, then Footscray High School in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. She worked as welfare worker for disabled people for the Manchester Community Health Service from 1963 to 1970. From 1970 to 1972, she was an education welfare officer for the Manchester Education Committee. From 1978 to 1980, she was Registrar of Marriages for Bury

registration district A registration district in the United Kingdom is a type of administrative region which exists for the purpose of civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths and civil partnerships. It has also been used as the basis for the collation of ...

. From 1989 to 1997, she was a project manager for

Calderdale Calderdale () is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the ...

Well Woman Centre. Before her election to parliament, McCafferty was a member of

Hebden Royd Hebden Royd is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 9,092, rising to 9,558 at the 2011 census. It includes market town of Hebden Bridge and the ...

Town Council 1991–95. She was also a councillor on

Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council, also known as Calderdale Council, is the local authority for the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local gove ...

1991–7, where she was chair of the

Adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...

Panel 1992–6. She served as member of the

West Yorkshire Police West Yorkshire Police, formerly the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the fourth largest territorial police force in England ...

Authority 1994–7.

Parliamentary career

McCafferty was selected as a

New Labour New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the ...

candidate through an

all-women shortlist All-women shortlists (AWS) is an affirmative action practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom, allowing only women to stand in particular constituencies for a particular political p ...

. She was elected in the

Labour landslide, replacing the Conservative Sir Donald Thompson who had held the seat since

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

. Her election was subject of the book ''This England'' by

Pete Davies Pete Davies is an English author of history and sports. Career He wrote ''American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age'' about the 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy, for which Davies visited sites al ...

. She held the seat in the

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

and

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

general elections despite Tory resurgence. In Parliament, she was a member of the

Procedure Committee The Procedure Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom ...

1997–9, and of the

International Development Committee The International Development Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the international aid functions ...

2001–5. Since 1999, she has also been a member of the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up of ...

, chairing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health. She was the author of the McCafferty Report, which proposed to limit the freedom of medical professionals to decline to perform controversial medical practices, such as abortion, in order to insure access to medical treatment. The initiative was ultimately defeated when, on 7 October 2010, a narrow majority of Members adopted a number of amendments that turned it into its opposite: it now re-affirms the free exercise of conscientious objection, instead of restricting it. McCafferty was one of the Labour rebel MPs that voted against British involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Later that year she voted against the hospital reform bill that introduced

NHS foundation trust An NHS foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service (England), National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care (and, until the a ...

s. In 2007, McCafferty announced that she would retire at the next general election.

Personal life

McCafferty married Michael McCafferty, with whom she had one son. Later she remarried to David Tarlo.

References

External links

Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Christine McCafferty MP

TheyWorkForYou.com - Chris McCafferty MP

Christine McCafferty's own website
*

BBC Politics
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCafferty, Christine 1945 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Whalley Range Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 Councillors in Calderdale 20th-century British women politicians 21st-century British women politicians 20th-century English women 20th-century English politicians 21st-century English women 21st-century English politicians