Elizabeth Anne McInnes (born 30 March 1959) is a British politician who served as

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

Heywood and Middleton Heywood and Middleton is a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Chris Clarkson of the Conservative Party. Constituency profile The constituency covers the west half of the ...

from 2014 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she was a Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2016 to 2019 and

Communities and Local Government The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government i ...

from 2015 to 2016.

Early life and career

Elizabeth Anne McInnes was born on 30 March 1959 in

Oldham 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, w ...

, Lancashire. She was the fifth of the eight children to Margaret Elizabeth and George Frederick McInnes. Her father was a sheet metal worker who died when she was 14 years-old, so her mother brought-up the family single-handedly. Margaret took on various jobs including running

public houses A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

. McInnes was educated at Hathershaw Comprehensive School, Oldham. She studied biochemistry at St Anne's College,

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and completed a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

at the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institu ...

. From 1981, she worked in healthcare for the

NHS 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 " ...

in London, Sheffield, Manchester and Oldham. Prior to her election to Parliament, McInnes was a senior biochemist at the

Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was an acute hospital trust which, until 2019, operated Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, North Manchester General Hospital, the Royal Oldham Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary, all in Greater Manchester. It i ...

. She served as secretary of the Pennine Acute branch for

Unite the Union Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union which was formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). Unite is the second largest trade union in the UK (afte ...

, chair of the National Health Sector Industrial Committee and a member of the Healthcare Science organising professional committee. She was elected as a Member of

Rossendale Borough Council Rossendale may refer to several places and organizations in Lancashire, England: Places *Rossendale Valley, a river valley *Borough of Rossendale, a local government district *Rossendale (UK Parliament constituency) Rossendale was a United King ...

for Longholme in

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, where she was health lead and Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee. McInnes stood down from the Council after her election to parliament, but was re-elected to Longholme in the 2022 local elections.

Parliamentary career

McInnes was elected to Parliament at the October 2014 Heywood and Middleton by-election, narrowly defeating

UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest p ...

candidate John Bickley with a majority of 617 votes. Caused by the death of the incumbent Labour MP

Jim Dobbin James Dobbin (26 May 1941 – 6 September 2014) was a British Labour Co-operative politician and microbiologist who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Heywood and Middleton from 1997 until his death in 2014. Early life Jim Dobbin was b ...

, she beat several candidates to win the Labour selection, including former BBC presenter

Miriam O'Reilly Miriam O'Reilly (born 16 February 1957 in Balbriggan, County Dublin) is an Irish television presenter. Until 2009, she was a presenter on the BBC One rural affairs show ''Countryfile''. Early life The daughter of an Irish farmer who came to ...

. She was re-elected in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

and

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, but defeated at the 2019 general election by

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Chris Clarkson Christopher Clarkson (born 7 April 1990) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays in the forward for the York Knights in the Betfred Championship. He is an England Knights international. He has previously played for Hull ...

. She supported

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 200 ...

in the 2015 Labour leadership election, and was appointed Shadow Minister for

after

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 socialis ...

's victory. In June 2016, McInnes supported Corbyn in a vote of no confidence within 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 ...

. However, she resigned from the front bench following his overwhelming defeat, arguing the outcome of the vote left her with no other option. She 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 unsuccessful attempt to replace him in the 2016 leadership election. McInnes was re-appointed to the opposition front bench in October 2016, as Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs responsible for Africa and Asia.

Political views and campaigns

McInnes was awarded Parliamentarian of the Year in 2016 by the charity

Brake A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction. Backgroun ...

, for her campaigning to obtain tougher sentences for those causing death and injury by dangerous driving. In 2019, she argued with ex-Labour MP

Ian Austin Ian Christopher Austin, Baron Austin of Dudley (born 6 March 1965) is a British politician who sits as a life peer in the House of Lords. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dudley North from the 2005 general election until the 2019 gene ...

in the House of Commons chamber whilst he criticised Jeremy Corbyn. She told Austin, "Why don't you go over there? You're not welcome here," directing him to sit alongside Conservative MPs on the government benches. He was later appointed to the House of Lords by the Conservative

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McInnes, Liz 1959 births Living people Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Surrey Councillors in Lancashire Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Oldham British biochemists 21st-century British women politicians UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Heywood and Middleton 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Women councillors in England