Katharine Helen Osborne (born 18 June) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jarrow and Gateshead East, formerly Jarrow since 2019.

Career

Osborne worked for

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

for 25 years. Her first foray into politics came in 2009, when she contested a by-election for Preston ward on

North Tyneside Council North Tyneside Council, or North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council, is the Local Government in England, local authority for the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provid ...

, losing to

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

David Sarin. The following year, Osborne was elected to represent the ward at the 2010 local elections, gaining the seat from the Conservative incumbent. She was re-elected to represent Preston in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

, and again in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. Osborne did not stand at the

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

North Tyneside elections. She was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

at the

2019 United Kingdom general election The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 12 December 2019, with 47,074,800 registered voters entitled to vote to elect 650 Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Un ...

, representing

Jarrow Jarrow ( or ) is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. Historically in County Durham, it is on the south bank of the River Tyne, about from the east coast. The 2011 census area classed Hebburn and the Boldons as ...

, a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing h ...

for Labour. She succeeded the party's former MP

Stephen Hepburn Stephen Hepburn (born 6 December 1959) is a British politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Jarrow from 1997 to 2019. Hepburn was a member of the Labour Party until 7 October 2019, when he was suspended from the party following an ac ...

, who had been prevented from standing again over allegations of misconduct. Osborne is a member of Labour's left-wing

Socialist Campaign Group The Socialist Campaign Group, also simply known as the Campaign Group, is a UK parliamentary caucus of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party including Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the Uni ...

. Osborne was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Shadow Home Affairs team, led by

Shadow Home Secretary In British politics, the shadow home secretary (formally known as the shadow secretary of state for the home department) is the person within the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (UK), shadow cabinet who shadows the home secretary; this effecti ...

Diane Abbott Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who has been serving as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987 Unit ...

, in January 2020. She served until the front bench reshuffle following Keir Stamer's election as

Labour Leader The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again. 19th century The origins of th ...

in April 2020. Osborne returned as a PPS in December 2021, this time to the Shadow Northern Ireland team led by Shadow Secretary of State

Peter Kyle Peter John Kyle (born 9 September 1970) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hove ...

. In 2021, she was selected for the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, assigned to the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

. During the June 2022 rail strikes, Osborne joined a picket line with railway workers, reportedly going against orders from her party not to do so. Commenting, she said, "Solidarity to workers on strike today, they have my full support."

Personal life

Osborne is an activist and campaigner in the trade union and

LGBT+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

movements. She was married to Pamela Brooks, a former North Tyneside councillor. The couple served on the council at the same time, including four years in which they both represented Preston ward. Brooks gained Preston from the Conservative candidate who had defeated her partner in 2009. Osborne has two sons and lives in her Jarrow constituency. On 16 March 2020, Osborne became the second British Member of Parliament to test positive for

Coronavirus disease 2019 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include f ...

(COVID-19), after Conservative

Nadine Dorries Nadine Vanessa Dorries (' Bargery; born 21 May 1957) is a British author and a former politician who served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2021 to 2022. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire ...

. She was in

self-isolation In health care facilities, isolation represents one of several measures that can be taken to implement in infection control: the prevention of communicable diseases from being transmitted from a patient to other patients, health care workers ...

in her London flat for three weeks.

References

External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, Kate Living people 21st-century British women politicians Councillors in Tyne and Wear Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies LGBTQ members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom English LGBTQ politicians British LGBTQ rights activists Royal Mail people UK MPs 2019–2024 21st-century English women 21st-century English politicians Women councillors in England Year of birth missing (living people) Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East Socialist Campaign Group UK MPs 2024–present