Christine McCafferty (''née'' Livesley; born 14 October 1945) is a British Labour Party politician who was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Calder Valley Calder is a Scottish name and may refer to: People *Calder (surname) *Calder baronets, two baronetcies created for people with the surname Calder *Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the American sculptor known for his mobiles, son of Alexander Stirlin ...

from

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

when she retired.

Early life

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, she attended

Whalley Range High School Whalley Range 11–18 High School, also known as Whalley Range High School is a girls' school in Whalley Range, Manchester, England. History The school was founded in 1891 and was bought by the Education Committee of the Corporation in 1908 wh ...

in Whalley Range, Manchester, then

Footscray High School Footscray High School is a multi-campus educational institution in Melbourne, Australia. Footscray College has formed a network with the University of Melbourne which gives students a better chance of getting into the University after they leav ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. She worked as welfare worker for disabled people for the Manchester Community Health Service from 1963 to 1970. From 1970 to 1972, she was an education welfare officer for the Manchester Education Committee. From 1978 to 1980, she was Registrar of Marriages for

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

registration district. From 1989 to 1997, she was a project manager for

Calderdale Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, whose population in 2020 was 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the u ...

Well Woman Centre. Before her election to parliament, McCafferty was a member of Hebden Royd Town Council 1991–95. She was also a councillor on Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council 1991–7, where she was chair of the

Adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

Panel 1992–6. She served as member of the West Yorkshire Police Authority 1994–7.

Parliamentary career

McCafferty was selected as a New Labour candidate through an

all-women shortlist All-women shortlists (AWS) is an affirmative action practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom, allowing only women to stand in particular constituencies for a particular political p ...

. She was elected in the

Labour landslide, replacing the Conservative Sir Donald Thompson who had held the seat since

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

. Her election was subject of the book ''This England'' by Pete Davies. She held the seat in the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

general elections despite Tory resurgence. In Parliament, she was a member of the Procedure Committee 1997–9, and of the International Development Committee 2001–5. Since 1999, she has also been a member of the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up o ...

, chairing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health. She was the author of the McCafferty Report, which proposed to limit the freedom of medical professionals to decline to perform controversial medical practices, such as abortion, in order to insure access to medical treatment. The initiative was ultimately defeated when, on 7 October 2010, a narrow majority of Members adopted a number of amendments that turned it into its opposite: it now re-affirms the free exercise of conscientious objection, instead of restricting it. McCafferty was one of the Labour rebel MPs that voted against British involvement in the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

. Later that year she voted against the hospital reform bill that introduced

NHS foundation trust A foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care (and, until the abolition of SHAs in 2013, their local s ...

s. In 2007, McCafferty announced that she would retire at the next general election.

Personal life

McCafferty married Michael McCafferty, with whom she had one son. Later she remarried to David Tarlo.

References

External links

Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Christine McCafferty MP

TheyWorkForYou.com - Chris McCafferty MP

Christine McCafferty's own website
*

BBC Politics
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCafferty, Christine 1945 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Whalley Range Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 Councillors in Calderdale 20th-century British women politicians 21st-century British women politicians 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century English women 21st-century English people