Julie Elizabeth Cooper (born 20 June 1960) is a British Labour Party politician who 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 o ...

(MP) for

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

from 2015 to 2019.

Career

Local politics, and 2010 General Election

An English teacher by profession, Cooper studied at

Edge Hill University Edge Hill University is a campus-based public university in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England, which opened in 1885 as Edge Hill College, the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England, before admitting its first male stu ...

before going on to teach at secondary level. She then went on to run a Burnley-based pharmacy business with her husband. She was first elected as a Labour councillor for

Burnley Borough Council Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

's Bank Hall ward in May 2005, and later became leader of the Labour group. In the May 2012 local elections Labour regained control of the council with Cooper becoming council leader. She was selected as Labour's candidate to contest the 2010 General Election in December 2009, after the sitting Labour MP,

Kitty Ussher Katharine Anne Ussher (born 18 March 1971) is a British economist, former Labour Party MP and Treasury minister, and former Chief Executive of the Demos think tank, who is now chief economist at the Institute of Directors. She is also a Non E ...

decided to stand down at the election. The selection of Ussher's successor caused some controversy, when Labour's

National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties: * National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa * Australian Labor Party National Executive * Nationa ...

ruled that the constituency should adopt an all female shortlist, a decision it subsequently overturned following accusations of unfairness. Cooper contested the general election in May 2010, but was defeated by the Liberal Democrat candidate,

Gordon Birtwistle Gordon Birtwistle (born 6 September 1943) is a British Liberal Democrat politician and former MP. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Burnley, England, from May 2010 to May 2015. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to D ...

. Burnley, which had returned a Labour candidate at every election since 1935, was one of three constituencies in East Lancashire to be lost by the party in 2010, something that local activists blamed on the unpopularity of the government of

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

. The loss of emergency hospital services in the town, which were moved to nearby

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

, had also become a contentious issue, and Birtwistle had campaigned on a platform to bring them back.

2015 general election and Constituency MP

In July 2013, she was selected to contest the seat again in 2015, an all female shortlist was used, and selection was conducted through a secret ballot. Along with other seats in East Lancashire, Labour regarded winning the Burnley constituency as an important step to return to government. Among the issues Cooper's campaign focused on were employment,

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

, and questioning the effects of the austerity programme pursued by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition. She rejected Birtwistle's argument that Burnley Hospital's upgraded urgent-care centre was effectively an accident and emergency department, and claimed credit for new investment in the town during her tenure as leader of the council. At the election she took the seat back from the Liberal Democrats, defeating Birtwistle with a 6.3% swing in Labour's favour. Following the resignation of

Ed Miliband Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...

as Labour leader in the wake of the election, Cooper was one of 68 MPs to give their support to Andy Burnham in the subsequent leadership contest. Cooper gave her

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

to 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. T ...

on 1 June. On 4 June Cooper was announced as one of twenty House of Commons backbenchers who would be given parliamentary time to introduce a private member's bill, coming fourth on the list. Her bill, to exempt carers from having to pay hospital car parking charges, received its first reading on 24 June. At the second reading, in October, it was talked out in a filibuster by the Conservative MP

Philip Davies Philip Andrew Davies (born 5 January 1972) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley in West Yorkshire since the 2005 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he is the most rebellious se ...

. When, in September 2015, Labour elected

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 ...

as Miliband's successor with 59.5% of first preference votes, and Tom Watson as his deputy, Cooper called for members to support the party's new leadership: "This is a very decisive result. There is no arguing about it. It’s plain to see what the party members want. The job now is to get 100% behind the leader and the deputy." She later supported

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 ...

in the failed attempt to replace

in the 2016 Labour leadership election. Cooper supported Remain in the

EU referendum This is a list of referendums related to the European Union, or referendums related to the European Communities, which were predecessors of the European Union. Since 1972, a total of 48 referendums have been held by EU member states, candidate st ...

. Following the vote, she said she was “in shock” at the result. She added: “There has been a lot of nonsense on both sides but I have certainly never been one for scaremongering. I actually do think this will leave the NHS worse off though. I really do worry for its future”. She also said it was “a time of great uncertainty for business owners in general”. In September 2017, she voted against the European Repeal Bill. Cooper stood for re-election and was one of the many Labour MPs to be defeated.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Julie 1960 births Living people Councillors in Lancashire Schoolteachers from Lancashire Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Lancashire People from Burnley Politics of Burnley UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 21st-century British women politicians Leaders of local authorities of England 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Women councillors in England