Maria Eagle was first elected as the Labour MP for Garston and Halewood in 1997, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 31,624.
She currently serves as the Shadow Minister for Defence Procurement, having been appointed to the role in Keir Starmer’s September 2023 reshuffle.
The constituency of Garston and Halewood is found to the south of Merseyside, and includes the communities of Allerton, Cressington, Garston and Halewood, alongside the affluent Liverpool suburb of Woolton. Containing the upper part of the Mersey Estuary, this was a former ship building area, and in recent years has become one of the Labour Party’s safest seats in the UK. Liverpool’s John Lennon airport is found in this constituency.
Maria Eagle served in the last Labour government between 2001 and 2010, variously as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, Minister for children at the Department for Education and Skills, and Minister of State for Justice and Equalities.
After the 2010 General Election she became Shadow Transport Secretary. In 2013 she became Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Born in 1961, Maria Eagle was educated at Oxford University and worked as a solicitor focussed on housing issues before becoming an MP. When she was first elected to parliament in 1997 she joined her twin sister, Angela Eagle, who had been elected in the previous parliament, making the sisters the first twins to have sat in the House of Commons.
Like her sister, Maria Eagle is a very able chess player having played for England. She is also a keen cricketer who played for Lancashire in her youth.
She backed Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour leadership election.
She has previously campaigned for a ban on mink fur farming. She has also led a number of campaigns around the Hillsborough football disaster, and a campaign to vindicate those involved in the MV Derbyshire ship disaster.
Maria Eagle is Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the BBC; and an Officers of the Party Parliamentary Group on Legal and Constitutional Affairs.
Email: eaglem@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://mariaeaglemp.co.uk/
Twitter: @meaglemp
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/mariaeaglemp
