Kate_Green

Kate Green

Kate Green

British Labour politician

For the Canadian producer and director, see Kate Green (producer).

Katherine Anne Green OBE JP[1] (born 2 May 1960) is a British politician serving as Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Policing and Crime since 2023. She previously served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stretford and Urmston between 2010 and 2022. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities from 2015 to 2016, Chair of the Committees on Privileges and Standards from 2018 to 2020, and Shadow Secretary of State for Education from 2020 to 2021.

Quick Facts OBE JP, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Policing and Crime ...

Under Ed Miliband's leadership, she was a junior Shadow Equalities Minister from 2011 to 2013 and Shadow Disabled People Minister from 2013 to 2015. Green was promoted to the shadow cabinet after Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader in 2015, as Shadow Women and Equalities Minister. After losing confidence in Corbyn's leadership, she resigned in 2016 and chaired Owen Smith’s unsuccessful leadership challenge.

Green was elected to chair the Privileges and Standards Committees in 2018, and stood down upon her appointment as Shadow Child Poverty Strategy Minister by new Labour leader Keir Starmer in April 2020. Starmer promoted her to Shadow Education Secretary in June 2020, but she left the front bench in the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle. She resigned her seat in parliament in November 2022 after being nominated by Andy Burnham as Greater Manchester's Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime.

Early life

Katherine Anne Green was born on 2 May 1960 in Edinburgh, Scotland.[2][3] Her parents were Jessie Craig (née Bruce) and Maurice Green, who was Jewish.[4] She attended Currie High School and the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree.[2][1]

Career

After university, Green began a career at Barclays Bank, working for the organisation from 1982 to 1997. From 1997 to 1999 she worked as a Whitehall and Industry Group secondee to the Home Office.

Green was employed as Director of the National Council for One Parent Families between 2000 and 2004, then taking up the post of Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) until 2009. Alongside this, Green was a member, then chair, of the London Child Poverty Commission from 2006 to 2009.

Green also served as a magistrate in the City of London between 1993 and 2009.[2][1]

Green joined the Labour Party in 1990 and stood unsuccessfully in the 1997 General Election as the candidate for the Greater London constituency of Cities of London and Westminster. She contested the 2000 London Assembly election in the West Central constituency, again not being elected.[1]

Parliamentary career

In 2009, Green was selected as the candidate for Stretford and Urmston through an all-women shortlist following Beverley Hughes's announcement that she would not be seeking re-election.[5] She was elected as Member of Parliament on 6 May 2010, securing 48.6% of the vote and increasing the majority Hughes gained in the 2005 general election.

Since entering Parliament, Green has been elected as a Vice-Chair of the Labour Party's National Policy Forum and served as the chairman of the Women's Parliamentary Labour Party.[6][7]

In November 2011, Green was criticised for failing to declare an interest when tabling an amendment to a bill. Green had neglected to mention her membership of the GMB trade union when attempting to amend the Legal Aid Bill.[8] In a statement in Parliament Green apologised, saying: "I was advised on those amendments by the GMB trade union. My entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests makes clear my membership of and relationship with that union, but I regret that I did not draw attention to that last week in the Chamber because the amendments did not relate specifically to the union, but to the rights of individual employees." The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, accepted Green's apology, describing it as "most courteous" and insisting that the matter had been resolved.[9]

In February 2012, Green complained about a beer sold in the House of Commons Stranger's Bar, called Top Totty. The advertising plate on the pump handle featured an image of a bikini-clad bunny girl, which Green said "demeaned women". Leader of the House Sir George Young upheld her complaint and had the beer removed.[10] The beer, brewed in Stafford by Slater's, had been recommended to the House in 2007 by Labour MP for Stafford David Kidney after a visit to Slater's Brewery.[10][11]

Green was re-elected in the 2015 general election on an increased voter turnout, managing to increase both the Labour Party's share and majority.

Green became chair of Owen Smith's leadership campaign challenging Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 leadership election.[12] Green wrote in the New Statesman in September 2016: "Even when Jeremy gets that there's a problem, his solutions too often reinforce rather than address the root causes of gender inequality".[13]

Green held her seat at the 2017 and 2019 general elections.[14] She announced in February 2022 that she would be standing down at the next general election.[15] On 9 November 2022, she was announced as Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham's nominee to succeed Baroness Bev Hughes as Deputy Mayor for Policing;[16] in order to take up the post, she applied to become Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead on 10 November, a procedural device which allows MPs to resign.[17]

Frontbench Opposition career

Following a reshuffle of Labour's shadow ministerial team in October 2011, Green was promoted to junior Shadow Minister for Equalities.[18][19] In October 2013, Green became Shadow Minister for Disabled People.[20]

Following Jeremy Corbyn's election as Leader of the Labour Party, Green was promoted again to the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet serving as Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities.[21] In a March 2016 speech, Corbyn advocated the decriminalisation of the sex industry, to which Green commented "without any discussion or consultation with his shadow cabinet, with me as his shadow minister for women and equalities, with women in the PLP or, to the best of my knowledge, with anyone in the wider Labour Party".[13] She resigned from this position on 27 June 2016.[22]

Green was a supporter of the Remain campaign during the EU referendum [23] [24]

In April 2020, Green was appointed as Shadow Minister for Child Poverty Strategy by new party leader Keir Starmer.[25] In June 2020, she was appointed as Shadow Education Secretary, replacing Rebecca Long-Bailey.[26] Green left the front bench in the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle.[27]

Parliamentary Committees

Green has been a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, European Scrutiny Committee, Justice Select Committee, Committee of Privileges, Commons Select Committee on Standards (which she chaired from October 2018 to November 2019 and January 2020 to May 2020), the Home Affairs Select Committee, and the Liaison Committee.[28]

All-party Parliamentary Groups

Green was an officer of the following All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), as of May 2020:[29]

  • Migration (chair)
  • Gypsies, Roma, and Travellers (chair)
  • Women in the Penal System (chair)
  • Learning Disability (vice-chair)
  • Legal Aid (vice-chair)
  • Srebrenica (vice-chair)
  • Valproate and other Anti-Epileptic Drugs in Pregnancy (vice-chair)
  • Dalits (treasurer)

Personal life and honours

Green married Richard Duncan Mabb in 1985; the couple divorced in 2006.[1][30]

She is a member of the GMB and Unite trade unions, the Fawcett Society, the Fabian Society (which she chaired from 2016 to 2018), and CPAG.[31][1]

She is a past trustee of the Friends Provident Foundation, Institute for Fiscal Studies, Family and Parenting Institute, Avenues Youth Project, and End Child Poverty.[32]

Green was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for "services to welfare work" as part of the 2005 New Year Honours, where her work in the CPAG and membership of the National Employment Panel was recognised.[33][32]

Selected bibliography

  • Green, Kate; Bergmann, Barbara; Himmelweit, Susan F.; Albelda, Randy P.; Women's Committee of One Hundred; Koren, Charlotte (July 2004). "Lone mothers: What is to be done?". Feminist Economics. 10 (2): 237–264. doi:10.1080/1354570042000217793. S2CID 154744396.

References

  1. [1]
    "Members of Parliament in Stretford, Manchester, Greater Manchester". Stretford & Urmston Messenger. May 2010. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  2. [2]
    "Green, Katherine Anne, (Kate), (born 2 May 1960), MP (Lab) Stretford and Urmston, since 2010", Who's Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u42734, ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4, archived from the original on 5 August 2018, retrieved 5 August 2018
  3. [3]
    "Kate Green MP". BBC Democracy Live. BBC. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  4. [4]
    Rocker, Simon (2 August 2020). "Shadow Education Secretary tells Limmud: 'Horror' over Labour antisemitism made me speak about my Jewish background". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
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    Downes, Robert (3 December 2009). "MP Bev welcomes her new replacement". Stretford & Urmston Messenger. Archived from the original on 25 August 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
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    "We must reach out: An NEC member reports from Gillingham". labour-uncut.co.uk. Labour Uncut. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2011.
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    Prince, Rosa (24 January 2011). "Dominic Raab: men should 'burn their briefs' in protest at 'obnoxious feminist bigots'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 13 July 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
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    Ridge, Sophy (9 November 2011). "Tories pursue Labour on Union links (blog)". Sky News | Our Blogs. Archived from the original on 12 November 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
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    Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston (9 November 2011). "Points of Order". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. col. 307.
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    Staff writer (2 February 2012). "Top Totty beer banned from House of Commons bar in case if offends women". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
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    Kidney, David (12 June 2007). "Slater's Beer – what all the MPs are drinking" (PDF). News release from David Kidney MP. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
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    Pope, Conor (22 July 2016). "Owen Smith snaps up former Corbyn policy chief for leadership bid". LabourList. Archived from the original on 24 July 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
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    Green, Kate (2 September 2016). "Jeremy Corbyn still doesn't get our concerns about sexist abuse". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 3 September 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
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    "Stretford & Urmston parliamentary constituency – Election 2019". Archived from the original on 14 June 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
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    "Labour MP Kate Green to stand down at next election". BBC News. 11 February 2022. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
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    "Greater Manchester deputy mayor Bev Hughes to step down". BBC News. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  17. [17]
    "Manor of Northstead: Kate Green". gov.uk. HM Treasury. 10 November 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  18. [18]
    "Her Majesty's Official Opposition". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 13 October 2010. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
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    Woodhouse, Craig (10 October 2011). "Labour takes down Blair and Brown pictures in HQ clear-out". London Evening Standard | Politics. Archived from the original on 19 December 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
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    "Visit from Shadow MP for Disabilities". newcollegeworcester.co.uk. New College Worcester. 24 November 2014. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
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    Walker, Peter (16 September 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet in full". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  22. [22]
    Syal, Rajeev; Perraudin, Frances (27 June 2016). "Shadow cabinet resignations: who has gone and who is staying". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  23. [23]
    "Kate Green MP on why we should vote to remain in the EU". YouTube.
  24. [24]
    "EU vote: Where the cabinet and other MPS stand". BBC News. 22 June 2016.
  25. [25]
    Rodgers, Sienna (9 April 2020). "Shadow ministers appointed as Starmer completes frontbench". LabourList. Archived from the original on 10 April 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  26. [26]
    "Labour party: Kate Green appointed as shadow education secretary". BBC News. 27 June 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  27. [27]
    "Labour reshuffle: Yvette Cooper becomes shadow home secretary". BBC News. 30 November 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  28. [28]
    "Parliamentary career for Kate Green – MPs and Lords – UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 12 December 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  29. [29]
    "Registers published in 2020". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 24 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  30. [30]
    "Who's Who". www.ukwhoswho.com.
  31. [31]
    Bean, Emma (8 December 2016). "Fabians name centre-left former shadow minister Kate Green as new chair". LabourList. Archived from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  32. [32]
    "PPC Profile: Kate Green". LabourList. 23 February 2010. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  33. [33]
    "New Year Honours: Children's sector workers rewarded". CYP Now. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
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