Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Garston, previously Garston and Halewood, since

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 ...

. She has served as Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry in the Ministry of Defence since July 2024. She served in the Shadow cabinets of Ed Miliband and

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

. The twin sister of Angela Eagle, also a Labour MP, Eagle was born in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

to a working-class family and raised in

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

. She studied

Philosophy, politics and economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...

at Pembroke College, Oxford and Law at the College of Law, London. After graduating with her law degree, she worked as an articled clerk and solicitor in both London and

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. After unsuccessfully contesting Crosby in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, she was elected as MP for Liverpool Garston at the 1997 general election. Under Tony Blair, Eagle was a junior minister at the

Department for Work and Pensions The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for welfare spending, welfare, pensions and child maintenance ...

, Department for Education and Skills and

Northern Ireland Office The Northern Ireland Office (NIO; , Ulster-Scots: ''Norlin Airlann Oaffis'') is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for handling Northern Ireland affairs. The NIO is led by the Secretary of S ...

. She was

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

at the Ministry of Justice and Government Equalities Office under Gordon Brown. Following the 2010 general election, Eagle became Shadow Solicitor General for England and Wales. She served in the Shadow cabinet as Shadow Transport Secretary, Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, Shadow Defence Secretary and finally Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary. She resigned from the Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet in June 2016. She returned to the frontbench as Shadow Minister for Procurement in 2023.

Early life and career

Maria Eagle was born on 17 February 1961 in

Bridlington Bridlington (previously known as Burlington) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is on the Holderness part (Flamborough Head to the Humber estuary) of the Yorkshire Coast by the North Sea. The town is ...

, the daughter of Shirley (' Kirk), a factory worker, and André Eagle, a print worker. She was educated at St Peter's Church of England School in

Formby Formby is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under ...

and Formby High School before attending Pembroke College, Oxford, where she graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in

in 1983. Eagle worked in the voluntary sector from 1983 to 1990, and then went to the College of Law,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where she took her law finals in 1990, before she joined Brian Thompson & Partners in

as an articled clerk in 1990. In 1992 she became a solicitor with Goldsmith Williams in Liverpool, and later a Solicitor at Stephen Irving & Co also in Liverpool, where she remained until her election to

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

. After joining the Labour Party, Eagle was elected the secretary of the Crosby Constituency Labour Party (CLP) for two years in 1983,Biography – Maria Eagle
UK Parliament and was also elected as the campaigns organiser with that CLP for three years in 1993.

Parliamentary career

At the 1992 general election, Eagle stood as the Labour Party candidate in Crosby, coming second with 25.7% of the vote behind the incumbent

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 ...

MP Malcolm Thornton.

Backbencher

Prior to the 1997 general election, Eagle was selected through an all-women shortlist to stand as the Labour candidate in Liverpool Garston. Eagle was elected to Parliament as MP for Liverpool Garston with 61.3% of the vote and a majority of 18,417. She made her maiden speech on 17 June 1997. She became a member of the Public Accounts Committee and in 1999 she was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the

at the Department of Health, John Hutton. Her proposed ban on mink fur farming was defeated as a

Private member's bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in wh ...

but subsequently picked up by the government and enacted as the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Act 2000. Eagle was re-elected as MP for Liverpool Garston at the 2001 general election with an increased vote share of 61.4% and a decreased majority of 12,494.

Government minister

Eagle was promoted to the Tony Blair government following the 2001 general election as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the

. At the 2005 general election, Eagle was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 54% and a decreased majority of 7,193. Following the election, she was the Minister for Children at the Department for Education and Skills, until the May 2006 reshuffle moved her to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, where she was minister for Employment and Learning. Eagle was moved to the Ministry of Justice when Gordon Brown became

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

in June 2007. In September 2008, she was nominated for Stonewall Politician of the Year for her work to support equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. As part of the government reshuffle in October 2008, she assumed additional responsibility for Equalities. In the June 2009 reshuffle, she was promoted to

Expenses controversy

On 17 May 2009, during the

United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal The United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal was a major political scandal that emerged in 2009, concerning expense claims made by members of the British Parliament in both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and th ...

, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' revealed that Eagle had claimed £3,500 for the refurbishment of the bathroom of her Liverpool home, then switched her second home designation to a different property four months later. Eagle voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs' expenses information secret.

In opposition

Prior to the 2010 general election, Eagle's constituency of Liverpool Garston was abolished, and replaced with Garston and Halewood. At the 2010 general election, Eagle was elected to Parliament as MP for Garston and Halewood with 59.5% of the vote and a majority of 16,877. Following the election, she served in interim Labour leader Harriet Harman's frontbench as Shadow Solicitor General for England and Wales and Shadow Minister for Justice. In October 2010 Eagle was elected to the Shadow cabinet of new Labour Party leader Ed Miliband as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet election. In February 2013, she voted in favour in the House of Commons Second Reading vote on marriage equality in Britain. At the 2015 general election, Eagle was re-elected as MP for Garston and Halewood with an increased vote share of 69.1% and an increased majority of 27,146. Eagle was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in September 2015 by newly elected Labour leader

. She said she was surprised by her appointment as she had disagreed with Corbyn's advocacy of unilateral nuclear disarmament and supported the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system. Tasked with leading Labour's defence review, she said she would not rule out the possibility of it recommending unilateral disarmament. However, she described Corbyn commenting he would not countenance using a nuclear deterrent as "unhelpful" to the policy process. In January 2016, Eagle was moved to the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. She resigned from the shadow cabinet on 27 June 2016 in the mass resignation of the Shadow Cabinet following the Brexit referendum. She supported

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a British lobbyist and former Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. Smith was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontypridd (UK Parliament constituency), Pontypridd from 2 ...

in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election. At the snap 2017 general election, Eagle was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 77.7% and an increased majority of 32,149. She was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 72.3% and a decreased majority of 31,624. She is a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel. On 15 February 2023, she was appointed as a member of the Privy Council. In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was appointed Shadow Minister for Procurement.

Return to government

Due to the

2023 review of Westminster constituencies The 2023 review of Westminster constituencies was the most recent cycle of the process to redraw the constituency map for the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The new constituency boundaries were approved by the Privy Council on 15 Nov ...

, Eagle's constituency of Garston and Halewood was abolished, and replaced with Liverpool Garston. At the 2024 general election, Eagle was elected to Parliament as MP for Liverpool Garston with 58.4% of the vote and a majority of 20,104. She was appointed as Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry on 8 July. In November 2024, Eagle voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which proposes to legalise

assisted suicide Assisted suicide, sometimes restricted to the context of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is the process by which a person, with the help of others, takes actions to end their life. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifie ...

Personal life

Following her initial election, Eagle joined her twin sister Angela in Parliament. Maria describes herself as "the straight one", while Angela is a lesbian.

Notes

References

Publications

*
High Time or High Tide for Labour Women?
' by Maria Eagle and Joni Lovenduski, 1998, Fabian Society Books, ,

External links

Maria Eagle MP
official website , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Eagle, Maria 1961 births Living people 20th-century British women politicians 20th-century English politicians 20th-century English women 21st-century British women politicians 21st-century English politicians 21st-century English women Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford English identical twins Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Identical twin females Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liverpool constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland Office junior ministers One Nation Labour People from Bridlington People from Formby UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–2024 UK MPs 2024–present Women government ministers in the United Kingdom