Linda June Riordan (née Haigh; 31 May 1953) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Co-operative politician who was 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 Halifax from the 2005 general election until standing down in 2015.

Early life

Riordan was born in Halifax and graduated from the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...

.‘RIORDAN, Linda’, Who's Who 2013, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2013; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2012; online edn, November 201
Profile
ukwhoswho.com; accessed 7 May 2015.Linda Riordan - Parliamentary candidates
, ukpolitics.telegraph.co.uk; accessed 7 May 2015. She served as a Calderdale councillor for eleven years, representing the

Ovenden Ovenden is a village in West Yorkshire, England, next to Boothtown and Illingworth about a mile from Halifax town centre. It is also a Calderdale Ward whose population at the 2011 Census was 12,351. Ovenden railway station on the Halifax and ...

ward from 1995 to 2006, when she stood down to devote herself full-time to her role as an MP. She worked as private secretary for her predecessor as Halifax's Labour MP Alice Mahon between 2001 and 2005, and was active in the local Co-operative Party as secretary and treasurer. She was chosen as the Labour candidate from an all-women shortlist but her candidature was at first opposed by the Party's ruling

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 ...

owing to concerns about selection process. She was later allowed to stand.

Parliamentary career

Riordan was elected in 2005 and returned to Parliament with a reduced majority in 2010. She served on various select committees including the Justice Committee, the Procedure Committee, the Environmental Audit Select Committee, the European Scrutiny Committee and the all-Party Crossrail Committee. She was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to

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 ...

in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements In February 2015 she announced that she would be standing down at the general election in May, citing ill health.

Expenses

In December 2010 it was revealed that Riordan had secretly repaid £105.86 in wrongly claimed expenses. The repayment came about after Riordan had used

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 ...

stationery for

party political A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

purposes. Riordan apologised, blaming volunteers for the incident. In October 2012, the Speaker of the House of Commons,

John Bercow John Simon Bercow (; born 19 January 1963) is a British former politician who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham between 1997 and 2019. A member of the Conservative Party prior t ...

, blocked the release of data showing which MPs were letting their homes to other MPs for financial gain. However, a study of parliamentary records was published in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''.Expenses scandal: Labour MP made thousands letting flat to fellow member
''The Daily Telegraph'', 19 October 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2013. This article listed problematic expense claims by Riordan and 26 other MPs, and said that she received rental income from a flat she owned in London which was rented out through an agencyMPs in expenses row defend renting arrangements
''The Guardian'', 19 October 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2013. to fellow Labour MP

Iain McKenzie Iain McKenzie (born 4 April 1959) is a Scottish Labour Party politician, who was formerly the Member of Parliament for Inverclyde. He was elected at the June 2011 by-election, and stood unsuccessfully for re-election in the 2015 general election ...

and was, at the same time, able to claim expenses on another flat she rented in the city under an arrangement allowed by

IPSA ''Ipsa'' is a genus of small or medium-sized sea snails, cowries, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.WoRMS (2010). ''Ipsa'' Jousseaume, 1884. In: Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S.; Rosenberg, G. (2010) World Ma ...

rules.Linda Riordan promises to pay back profit on flat sale after renting to fellow Labour MP
''The Daily Telegraph'', 22 October 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2013. Riordan, along with other MPs, said that under new rules she was banned from receiving mortgage interest expenses by IPSA and, as a result, had been forced to let the property. Days after the report, Riordan put the flat on the market, having previously tried to sell the flat in 2010. She pledged to ensure that any profit she gained from the sale would be paid back to the taxpayer.Update on Halifax MP Linda Riordan revelations – she says flat will be put up for sale
''Halifax Courier'', 23 October 2012; retrieved 10 February 2013.

Personal life

She was married to Alan Riordan from 1979 until his death in April 2007, aged 65, of

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. The main symptoms include shortness of breath and a cough, which may or may not produce ...

.MP's tribute to husband, Alan, 65
HalifaxCourier.co.uk; accessed 7 May 2015.

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riordan, Linda 1953 births Living people People from Halifax, West Yorkshire Labour Co-operative MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 2005–2010 Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Alumni of the University of Bradford European democratic socialists Councillors in Calderdale UK MPs 2010–2015 21st-century British women politicians 21st-century English women 21st-century English people