Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams (' Morgan; born 15 September 1960) is a British
Labour Party politician who has served as the
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
Oldham East and Saddleworth
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, whic ...
since
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
.
Abrahams was a member of the
Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn assumed the position of Leader of the Opposition after being elected as leader of the Labour Party on 12 September 2015; the election was triggered by Ed Miliband's resignation following the Labour Party's electoral defeat at th ...
from 2015 to 2018. She remains in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
as a
backbencher
In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...
.
Early and professional life
Abrahams was born in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
, West Riding of Yorkshire; her father was a dentist. She was privately educated, going on to study biochemistry and physiology at the
University of Salford
, caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford
, mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things"
, established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...
; her early employment was as a community worker for a charity in
Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe () is a district of the city of Manchester, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Cheshire, Wythenshawe was transferred in 1931 to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the ...
in south Manchester, where she set up job training programmes for teenagers.
She later studied for a master's degree at the
University of Liverpool
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
. Abrahams was head of healthy cities for
Knowsley and served on the board of Bury and Rochdale Health Authority.
[
In 2002, Abrahams was appointed chair of ]Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
Primary Care Trust
Primary care trusts (PCTs) were part of the National Health Service in England from 2001 to 2013. PCTs were largely administrative bodies, responsible for commissioning primary, community and secondary health services from providers. Until 31 May ...
. She was Director of the International Health Impact Assessment Consortium at the University of Liverpool between 2006 and 2010.
Early political career
She resigned from the Chair of Rochdale Primary Care Trust in 2007, over the use of private health companies in the National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
, which she said was "destroying the NHS". She then joined the Labour Party, declaring that she wanted "to challenge health policy at a local and national level to ensure that it reflects hecore values" of the NHS. She was appointed by Simon Danczuk
Simon Christopher Danczuk (; born 24 October 1966) is a British author and former Member of Parliament (MP) who represented the constituency of Rochdale between 2010 and 2017. He has co-written two books, ''Smile for the Camera: The Double Life ...
, then Labour candidate for Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
, as his advisor on health,[ and she stood for Rochdale Borough Council in Milnrow and Newhey ward in the 2008 local elections. She criticised the local council in Rochdale for failing to address health inequalities in the town.
At the 2010 general election, Abrahams was the Labour Party candidate for ]Colne Valley
The Colne Valley is a steep sided valley on the east flank of the Pennine Hills in the English county of West Yorkshire. It takes its name from the River Colne which rises above the town of Marsden and flows eastward towards Huddersfield.
...
; she made a plea to Liberal Democrat
Several political party, political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democracy, liberal democratic ideology.
Active parties
Former parties ...
voters to back her in order to stop the Conservatives winning power. She was unsuccessful in her attempt to retain the seat, which had previously been held by Labour, and ended up in third place.
The winning candidate, Conservative 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) Jason McCartney Jason McCartney may refer to:
*Jason McCartney (politician) (born 1968), Member of Parliament for Colne Valley UK Parliament constituency until June 2017
*Jason McCartney (footballer) (born 1974), former Australian rules footballer and coach of the ...
, said after the election that Abrahams had run "a good, positive campaign" and that in the light of bad-tempered exchanges between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, he was not surprised that she was close to coming second.
Parliamentary career
In December 2010, Abrahams was placed on a shortlist of three to be the Labour Party candidate for the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. She was selected as Labour's candidate and retained the seat for the Labour Party with a majority of 3,558 with 42.1% of the vote.
Abrahams was appointed parliamentary private secretary to Andy Burnham
Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 ...
and elected Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party
In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour P ...
's Health Committee. In 2014, she organised an Inquiry Into The Effectiveness Of International Health Systems which she said demonstrated that "where there is competition, privatisation or marketisation in a health system, health equity worsens". She sought to reassure Clinical commissioning group
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were NHS organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished and replaced by Integra ...
s that the Labour Party's proposed health reforms would not amount to a top-down ‘big bang’ shake up of the NHS.
She was elected as a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee
The Work and Pensions Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Work and Pensi ...
in July 2015. In September 2015, Abrahams was appointed Shadow Minister for Disabled People by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
in recognition on her work with disabled people in the past. Abrahams was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is an office within British politics held by a member of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The duty of the office holder is to scrutinise the actions of the government's Secretary of State for Wo ...
in June 2016, following Owen Smith
Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...
's resignation from the Shadow Cabinet in the wake of the EU Referendum result.
In the general election of 8 June 2017 she retained the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat with an increased majority of 8,182. Her majority narrowed to 1,503 in the 2019 United Kingdom general election
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 12 December 2019. It resulted in the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party receiving a Landslide victory, landslide majority of 80 seats. The Conservatives made a net gain of 4 ...
.
In 2021, Abrahams was one of three MPs who successfully took legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwis ...
over contracts awarded during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
2018 bullying claims
In March 2018, Abrahams was suspended from her position as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary whilst she was investigated by the Labour Party over a "workplace issue", reported by several media outlets to be related to claims that she bullied staff; she has vehemently denied the claims, adding that she is the victim of a "bullying culture of the worst kind". In May that year she was removed from the Shadow Cabinet. In a statement, Abrahams said: "I strongly refute the allegations of bullying made against me. I believe the investigation was not thorough, fair or independent." She said she would now go to the party's National Executive Committee disputes panel.
Awards
In January 2013, Abrahams was awarded the Grassroot Diplomat
Grassroot Diplomat is a global non-profit, non-political, diplomatic consultancy established in 2013. The consultancy specialises in digital diplomacy and public diplomacy working with foreign governments and citizen diplomats to help build positi ...
Initiative Award in the Business Driver category, for her campaign to improve late payments affecting small businesses. She not only signed up to be a Champion of the Federation of Small Businesses Real-Life Entrepreneurs Campaign, but has been at the forefront of a campaign to improve the speed with which small businesses are paid by their customers.
Personal life
Abrahams married John Abrahams
John Abrahams (born 21 July 1952) is an English retired cricket player. His brothers Basil and Peter Abrahams, and his late father Cec Abrahams, were also cricketers. During his playing career, Abrahams was known as a left-handed batsman and ...
, a former captain of Lancashire County cricket team, in the late 1980s. They have two daughters, Victoria and Dawn.[
]
References
External links
*
Debbie Abrahams MP, Grassroot Diplomat
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abrahams, Debbie
1960 births
Alumni of the University of Liverpool
Alumni of the University of Salford
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Living people
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Greater Manchester
Politicians from Sheffield
Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
21st-century British women politicians
UK MPs 2019–present
21st-century English women
21st-century English people