Debra Ann Shipley (born 22 June 1957) is a politician in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. She was Labour Party

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

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

from 1997 until the 2005 general election, when she stood down for reasons of ill health. She was succeeded by

Lynda Waltho Lynda Ellen Waltho ('' née'' Abbott; born 22 May 1960) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stourbridge from 2005 to 2010, succeeding Labour MP Debra Shipley, who had stepped down due to ill-health ju ...

, also from the Labour Party. Shipley was the first woman MP for Stourbridge, but not the first Labour MP to sit for the town under different boundaries:

Wilfred Wellock Wilfred Wellock (2 January 1879 – 22 July 1972) was a socialist Gandhian and sometime Labour politician and MP. Life He was imprisoned as a conscientious objector in the First World War. He was elected at Member of Parliament (MP) for Member ...

had been the Labour MP from 1927 to 1931 (for Stourbridge); Arthur Moyle from 1945 to 1950 (Stourbridge);

George Wigg George Edward Cecil Wigg, Baron Wigg, PC (28 November 1900 – 11 August 1983) was a British Labour Party politician who only served in relatively junior offices but had a great deal of influence behind the scenes, especially with Harold Wils ...

from 1950 to 1968 (for

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

, which was lost to the Tories in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in 1968 following Wigg's ill-health and appointment to the National Horseracing Board), and John Gilbert from 1970 to 1974 (for Dudley, as Labour regained Dudley at the 1970 general election). Following Shipley's departure from Parliament in 2005, she later left the Labour Party, and in 2019 campaigned for

Change UK The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...

in Norfolk.

Parliament

Shipley was selected to stand for election for Labour 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 ...

. As an MP, Shipley's most significant initiative was the

Protection of Children Act {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 Protection of Children Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom. List * The Prevention of Cruelty to, and Protection of, Children Act 1889 * The Protection of Children Act 1978 * The Pr ...

, which passed with cross-party support, it requires that childcare organizations now check new staff against a newly created registry of child abusers. Shipley was also responsible for the Children's Food Bill, which called for the removal of "unhealthy" food from school

vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fir ...

s and improvements to school meals. The latter bill attracted the support of celebrity chef

Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reache ...

. Shipley served on the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee, and was Parliamentary Ambassador to the

NSPCC The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity. History Victorian era On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Yor ...

, in which capacity she fronted the "Full Stop" Campaign in Parliament. Shipley generally voted with her party.

References

External links

* 1957 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 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 {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub