Cllr. J. Harris – Kirkby Central
Cllr. Harris plans to retire in 2008. She is a member of the Cabinet of Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council. She holds surgeries at Southdene Community Centre and St Laurences Church House, Lydbury Crescent.
Cllr B. Swann – Halewood West
Cllr Swann plans to retire in 2008. He is Chair of the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Committee as well as a member of the Economy and Employment Scrutiny Committee, Planning Committee and Scrutiny Coordinating Committee. He holds surgeries at Arncliffe Sports Centre, Merseyside Youth Centre, Lichfield Road, 7 Aston Park and Rygate Club Merryvale.
At a national level
The Labour Party was formed in 1900 and originally followed the ideology of social democracy. In recent years, particularly under Blair, the party has adopted a more centrist approach, the “Third Way” and the party was re-branded New Labour. The party is made up of Constituency Labour Parties, affiliated trade unions, socialist societies and the Co-operative Party, with which it has an electoral agreement.
The leadership of the Parliamentary Labour Party is as follows:
Prime Minister and Leader of the Party: Tony Blair
Deputy Leader – John Prescott
Chief Whip – Jacqui Smith
Chair – Hazel Blears
The current Labour MPs in Parliament were elected in the general election in May 2005. Labour won 356 seats (55%). There are currently 352 Labour MPs in Parliament as of 20th October 2006. This gives the Labour Party 158 more MPs than the Conservative Party.The Map below shows the Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat constituencies following the 2005 general election:
Some of the Labour MPs in Merseyside are as follows:
David Watts MP – St Helens North
David Watts is married with two children. He has been MP for St Helens North since 1997. As Chair of the All-Party Objective One Group, he successfully campaigned for additional government match funding for European structural funds.
Maria Eagle MP – Liverpool Garston
Maria Eagle has been MP for Liverpool Garston since 1997, and has been the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions since June 2001. She is also a former member of the Public Accounts Select Committee. Before becoming an MP she worked as a solicitor specialising in housing and employment law.
Louise Ellman MP – Liverpool Riverside
Louise Ellman is married with two children. She has been the MP for Liverpool Riverside since 1997. Before becoming an MP she worked as an Open University Lecturer in Further Education. She is also a member of the Co-operative Party. She was the leader of Lancashire County Council from 1981 to 1997. She has a BA (Hons) and MPhil in Social Administration from the University of York.
Stephen Hesford MP – Wirral West
Stephen Hesford has been MP for Wirral West since 1997. He worked as a barrister from 1981 until entering Parliament in 1997. He was a member of the Northern Ireland Committee from 1997 to 1999 and a member of the Health Select Committee from 1999 to 2001. He is also a board member of Arch Initiatives, a local drugs rehabilitation charity.
At a European level
Labour MEPs are part of the Party of European Socialists in the European Parliament, the second largest group in the European Parliament which consists of the Socialist, Social Democratic and Labour parties of the European Parliament.
The leadership of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) is as follows:
Leader: Gary Titley MEP (North West)
Deputy Leader: Richard Corbett MEP (Yorkshire)
Whip: Glenis Wilmott MEP (East Midlands)
Chair: Robert Evans MEP (London)
EPLP Bureau: Neena Gill MEP (West Midlands) and Richard Howitt MEP (Eastern)
The current MEPs representing the United Kingdom were elected in the European Elections in 2004 using a voting system of proportional representation. 19 out of the total 75 MEPs in England, Scotland and Wales are Labour MEPs, meaning 25% of the MEPs in England, Scotland and Wales are from the European Parliamentary Party. Out of these 19 MEPs, 8 (42%) are women and 2 (10.5%) are from ethnic minorities.
This map shows the distribution of the United Kingdom’s 78 MEPs over the 12 large constituencies, each covering a wider region of the country than constituencies for national elections.
In the North West region there are 3 Labour Party MEPs, a third of the total 9 MEPs for the North West of England:
Arlene McCarthy MEP
Arlene McCarthy has been an MEP since 1994 and is a member of the Internal Market & Consumer Protection Committee and a substitute member of the Legal Affairs Committee. She is also the MEP representative on the Labour Party NEC sub-committee on Partnership in Power.
Before being elected as an MEP she was head of European programmes at Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council and has also worked as a researcher for the European Parliament’s Socialist Group.
Brian Simpson MEP
Brian Simpson has been an MEP since 1989 and is the European Parliamentary Labour Party’s agricultural spokesperson.
Before being elected as an MEP he was elected to Merseyside County Council from 1981 to 1986, and was a Warrington Borough Councillor from 1987 to 1991.
Gary Titley MEP
Gary Titley had been an MEP since 1989 and is the leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party and a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee. He is also a member of the European Parliament’s Transport & Tourism Committee and a substitute member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee.
Before being elected as an MEP he had been Director of the West Midlands Enterprise Board and Chair of the West Midlands Co-op Finance Company and the Black Country Co-op Development Agency. He was also a member of the West Midlands County Council from 1981 to 1986.
Labour MEPs receive the same pay as Labour MPs and work from offices in their UK constituencies as well as offices in Brussels and Strasbourg.
As Labour MEPs are present on all 20 committees within the European Parliament, a large amount of their time in the European Parliament is spent working on these committees to discuss proposals for new EU laws. These committees are: Agriculture; Budgets; Budgetary Control; Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs; Constitutional Affairs; Culture and Education; Development; Economic and Monetary Affairs; Employment and Social Affairs; Environment, Public Health and Food Safety; Fisheries; Foreign Affairs; Internal Market and Consumer Protection; Industry, Research and Energy; International Trade; Legal Affairs; Petitions; Regional Development; Transport and Tourism; Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.
Labour MEPs also hold important positions in the Socialist Group of the European Parliament. Linda McAvan MEP currently acts as Treasurer of the Socialist Group, and two Labour MEPs are co-ordinators of Socialist Group in the European Parliament Committees: Richard Corbett MEP is co-ordinator of the Constitutional Affairs Committee and Stephen Hughes MEP is co-ordinator of the Employment & Social Affairs Committee.
