Miriam Cates is the Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, having first been elected to Parliament in 2019. Cates gained the seat from Labour with a majority of 7,210.
The Penistone and Stocksbridge constituency is found within the county of South Yorkshire and covers Penistone, Stocksbridge and the surrounding area. This seat contains a mix of former mining and steel communities, alongside an affluent Pennine commuter belt for the nearby cities of Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. It contains part of the Peak District National Park. Having been marginal for a number of years, it was gained by the Conservatives in 2019.
Cates is currently facing claims that she has caused “significant damage to the reputation of the House as a whole, or of its members generally”. However, it is not known what the investigation — opened on December 14 — relates to.
Those under investigation by Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg are also barred from discussing the allegations.
In parliament, Cates has become a leading figure of the right-wing New Conservatives group.
She has also been outspoken in her concern about declining fertility rates in Britain, claiming the declining birth rate in the UK was partly down to “cultural Marxism” and increased numbers of people going to university.
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Cates is now one of eight MPs currently being investigated by standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg.
Others include senior Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin, deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing and the Reclaim MP Andrew Bridgen.
Born in 1982, Miriam Cates studied genetics at the University of Cambridge and obtained a Postgraduate certificate in Education from Sheffield Hallam University.
She then worked as a science teacher in a school in Sheffield.
Cates has a more recent background in the software sector, having worked as a Finance Director for a software consultancy company. The Register of Members Interests shows her to continue to have a holding in Redemption Media, and she has in the past been linked to the App, Foodbank, which provided services to Food Banks.
She is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Small and Micro businesses, and Digital Skills.
Miriam Cates is married with three children. She is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on School Exclusions and Alternative Provision, and on Conception to Age Two – First 1001 Days
Leading Conservative MP Miriam Cates under investigation by standards watchdog
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Website – www.miriamcates.org.uk
Email – miriam.cates.mp@parliament.uk
Twitter – @miriam_cates
