Angela Eagle

Last updated

2015–2016

Following the 28 June 2016 vote of no confidence by Labour MPs in Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, Eagle was reported as considering a challenge for the leadership of the Labour Party, and said she would do so if Corbyn did not resign. [41] [42] Eagle asserted that: "I'm not a Blairite. I'm not a Brownite... I am my own woman, a strong Labour woman." [43] George Eaton of the New Statesman reported that backers of the other potential challenger, Owen Smith, contended that Eagle's 2003 vote in support for the Iraq War and her support for extending airstrikes against ISIS into Syria (in December 2015) might harm her bid against Corbyn, [44] [45] Gary Younge of The Guardian thought it was less clear what Eagle wanted in place of Corbyn's politics. [46]

Eagle announced a leadership challenge to Corbyn on 11 July, saying that "Jeremy Corbyn is unable to provide the leadership this huge task needs. I believe I can". [47] On Tuesday 19 July 2016, Eagle announced she was withdrawing from the leadership election and would back the other candidate opposing Corbyn, Owen Smith, who had received about 20 more nominations from MPs and MEPs than she had. "We need to have a strong and united party so we can be a good opposition, take the fight to the Conservative Government and heal our country. So I am announcing that I will be supporting Owen in that endeavour with all my enthusiasm and might," Eagle said in an interview. [3]

Eagle's Constituency Labour Party in Wallasey were in favour of Corbyn remaining party leader and called upon Eagle to support Corbyn as leader. [48] [49] Her local party in Wallasey declared their support for Jeremy Corbyn as party leader "with an overwhelming majority" and proposed a vote of no-confidence in Eagle. [50] This did not take place as the NEC decided to suspend all Labour constituency party meetings during the leadership election. [51] With the support of Eagle, Wallasey Constituency Labour Party was suspended on 20 July 2016 over claims of bullying. [52] An internal Labour Party investigation concerning complaints about incidents in Eagle's Constituency Labour Party and other events during her leadership campaign reported in October 2016. It confirmed that she had received homophobic abuse during a CLP annual general meeting earlier in the year. [53] Pro-Corbyn activists strongly deny these accusations. [54]

The day following her declaration a brick was thrown through a downstairs window at her constituency office address, and it was reported that her staff had stopped answering the telephones because of "abusive" calls. Eagle herself claimed to have received hundreds of abusive and homophobic messages at this time. [55] It emerged on 21 July that the police had advised Eagle not to hold any open constituency surgeries over fears for her safety, advice which she has agreed to follow with regret. [56] [57] "It’s highly likely that the brick thrown through the window of Angela Eagle’s office was related to her leadership challenge". According to an internal party report, "[t]he position of the window made it very unlikely that this was" an action of "a random passerby" and it "was directly between two Labour offices". The claim "that the building was occupied by many companies and the window was in an unrelated stairwell" was judged to be misleading as "the landlord had a number of companies registered there; in fact the only other occupant is the landlord on the upper floor". [55]

Personal life

Eagle was joined in the House of Commons at the 1997 general election by her twin sister, Maria Eagle. [n 1] The Eagles are one of two pairs of sisters in the Commons, as of 2017, the other being Rachel and Ellie Reeves. They are identical twins. [59]

Eagle is a lesbian, coming out in a newspaper interview in September 1997. [60] [61] She is the second openly lesbian MP, after Maureen Colquhoun in the 1970s. [62] In September 2008, Eagle entered into a civil partnership with Maria Exall [63] [64] who is also involved in the Labour Party through the National Committee. [65]

She is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society. [66]

Eagle was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for parliamentary and political service. [67]

Notes

  1. ↑ They are sometimes incorrectly described as the first pair of twins to sit in the Commons together, but in fact the first set of twins is believed to have been James and Richard Grenville, who sat together for Buckingham between 1774 and 1780. [58]

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References

  1. ↑ "Shadow Cabinet Election Results". Labour Party. 7 October 2010. Archived from the original on 6 October 2010.
  2. ↑ "Shadow Cabinet Positions". BBC News. 8 October 2010. Archived from the original on 9 October 2010.
  3. 1 2 Grice, Andrew (19 July 2016). "Labour leadership election: Angela Eagle pulls out of contest to allow Owen Smith straight run at Jeremy Corbyn". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on 20 July 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  4. ↑ "Bio – Angela Eagle MP". Angelaeagle.co.uk. 17 February 1961. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  5. ↑ McDougall, L.; McDougall, Linda (31 January 2012). Westminster Women – L McDougall, Linda McDougall. Random House. ISBN   9781448130498. Archived from the original on 17 December 2017. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  6. ↑ Bedell, Geraldine (14 November 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn's top woman: Angela Eagle on a journey through Labour". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Kinnock, Stephen (25 April 2016). "Stephen Kinnock on hating to lose, getting Corbyn to tell jokes and giving journalists a kicking". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  8. ↑ "Bachelor of Arts degree". Sunday Times. 12 April 1992.
  9. ↑ "Angela Eagle MP Labour MP and Patron of the BHA". Humanism.org.uk. 7 October 2011. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  11. ↑ "UK General Election results April 1992". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
  12. ↑ Heffernan, Richard; Marqusee, Mike (1992). Defeat from the Jaws of Victory: Inside Kinnock's Labour Party. London and New York, NY: Verso. p.  281. ISBN   0-86091-561-1.
  13. ↑ "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "Ms Angela Eagle MP". Parliament UK. Archived from the original on 23 November 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  16. ↑ Stone, Jon (10 July 2016). "What does Angela Eagle believe? Her voting record from Iraq to welfare cuts to the NHS". The Independent. Archived from the original on 10 July 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  17. ↑ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  18. ↑ "Commons sketch: Brownite troops facing their Stalingrad". The Daily Telegraph. London. 10 November 2008. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012.
  19. ↑ "financial crisis". Western Morning News. 2 April 2009.
  20. ↑ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  21. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 July 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  22. ↑ Kuenssberg, Laura (27 April 2011). "David Cameron criticised for 'calm down dear' jibe". BBC News. Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  23. ↑ Wintour, Patrick (27 April 2011). "Labour fury as David Cameron tells Angela Eagle: 'Calm down, dear'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
  24. ↑ Wintour, Patrick. "Jon Cruddas to co-ordinate Labour's policy review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016.
  25. ↑ "Is this Labour's "Year of the Eagle"?". LabourList – Labour's biggest independent grassroots e-network. 13 December 2013. Archived from the original on 8 August 2015.
  26. ↑ "Cameron ducks Gary Barlow tax avoidance question". BBC News. 21 June 2012. Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  27. ↑ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  28. ↑ "Wallasey". BBC News. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  29. ↑ "General Election 2017: who is standing for election". Liverpool Echo. 11 May 2017.
  30. ↑ "Statement of persons nominated 2019" (PDF). 15 November 2019.
  31. ↑ Crampton, Caroline (9 June 2015). "Angela Eagle: "We just have to get over it and get on with it"". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  32. ↑ Bedell, Geraldine (24 November 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn's top woman: Angela Eagle on a journey through Labour". The Independent. Archived from the original on 16 February 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  33. ↑ "Labour reshuffle: the new shadow cabinet". The Daily Telegraph. 7 October 2011. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015.
  34. ↑ Chakelian, Anoosh (18 May 2015). "Angela Eagle announces that she will stand to be deputy Labour leader". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  35. ↑ Wilkinson, Michael (17 June 2015). "Meet Labour's deputy leadership contenders". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 27 August 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  36. 1 2 Stewart, Gary (29 July 2015). "Wallasey MP Angela Eagle secures Unison's backing for Labour Party deputy leader campaign". Liverpool Echo. Archived from the original on 21 September 2015.
  37. ↑ Smith, Mikey (5 July 2015). "Unite union backs Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leadership". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on 11 October 2015.
  38. ↑ "Labour leadership results in full". BBC News. 12 September 2015. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  39. ↑ Murphy, Liam (14 September 2015). "Angela Eagle misses out on Labour top job as Jeremy Corbyn announces shadow cabinet". Liverpool Echo. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015.
  40. ↑ Syal, Rajeev; Perraudin, Frances (27 June 2016). "Shadow cabinet resignations: who has gone and who is staying". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  41. ↑ "Eagle may delay leader bid 'to give Corbyn time to quit'". BBC News. 30 June 2016. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016.
  42. ↑ Riley-Smith, Ben (4 July 2016). "Labour coup: Angela Eagle goes public with threat to run against Jeremy Corbyn unless he resigns". The Telegraph. London, UK. Archived from the original on 4 July 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  43. ↑ Murphy, Joe (11 July 2016). "Labour leadership: I'm not a Corbynista, I'm my own woman, says Angela Eagle". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 11 July 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  44. ↑ Eaton, George (30 June 2016). "Why the Labour rebels have delayed their leadership challenge". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 3 July 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  45. ↑ "Iraq War". Theyworkforyou.com. Archived from the original on 9 April 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  46. ↑ Young, Gary (11 July 2016). "There was not one idea about what she would do". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 July 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  47. ↑ "Labour leadership: Angela Eagle says she can unite the party". BBC News. 11 July 2016. Archived from the original on 11 July 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  48. ↑ Waugh, Paul (28 June 2016). "Angela Eagle's Local Party Has Backed Jeremy Corbyn". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  49. ↑ "Angela Eagle under pressure from Wallasey Labour party over Corbyn vote". Wirral Globe. 29 June 2016. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  50. ↑ Vulliamy, Elsa (12 July 2016). "Angela Eagle leadership bid: Brick thrown through window of MP's constituency office after she challenges Jeremy Corbyn". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on 13 July 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  51. ↑ Fenton, Siobhan (17 July 2016). "Angela Eagle dismisses threat of no confidence vote from her own constituency". The Independent. Archived from the original on 21 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  52. ↑ "Wallasey Labour Party group suspended over bullying complaints". BBC News. 20 July 2016. Archived from the original on 23 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  53. ↑ Preston, Dominic (19 October 2016). "Labour Party report confirms Angela Eagle was targeted by homophobic abuse". PinkNews. Archived from the original on 16 November 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  54. ↑ "Unprecedented leak exposes inner workings of UK Labour Party". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  55. 1 2 Mason, Rowena (19 October 2016). "Angela Eagle received hundreds of homophobic messages from Labour members". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 November 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  56. ↑ Walker, Peter (21 July 2016). "Angela Eagle stops walk-in surgeries amid security concerns". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  57. ↑ "Police warn Angela Eagle of safety risks". Reuters. 21 July 2016. Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  58. ↑ Farrell, Stephen. "Twins in Parliament: the Grenvilles and Buckingham Borough, 1774". The History of Parliament Online. Archived from the original on 9 June 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  59. ↑ Rumbelow, Helen (1 November 2010). "Twin ambition: Angela and Maria Eagle". The Times. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  60. ↑ Moore, Suzanne (11 September 1997). "I need to get things sorted". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  61. ↑ Syal, Rajeev (23 June 2015). "Labour deputy leadership: Angela Eagle calls for more diversity at top of party". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 16 December 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  62. ↑ "A history of Christmas scandal past". BBC News. 22 December 1998. Archived from the original on 24 February 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  63. ↑ "Angela Eagle: My pride at being first lesbian MP to 'marry'". Liverpool Daily Post. 11 September 2008. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008.
  64. ↑ "MP sets civil ceremony precedent". BBC News. 27 September 2008. Archived from the original on 30 September 2008.
  65. ↑ "Gay Power: The Pink List 2006". The Independent . 2 July 2006. Archived from the original on 11 April 2010.
  66. ↑ "National Secular Society Honorary Associates". National Secular Society. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  67. ↑ "No. 63218". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2020. p. N7.
Dame
Angela Eagle
DBE MP
Official portrait of Ms Angela Eagle MP crop 2.jpg
Official portrait, 2020
Minister of State for Pensions and Ageing Society
In office
8 June 2009 –11 May 2010		 Shadow First Secretary of State
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Wallasey
1992–present		Incumbent
Political offices
Vacant
Title last held by
Phillip Oppenheim 		Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
2007–2009		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of State for Pensions and Ageing Society
2009–2010		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
2010–2011		Succeeded by
Preceded byas Acting Shadow First Secretary of State Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
2011–2015		Succeeded by
Shadow First Secretary of State
2015–2016		Vacant
Title next held by
Emily Thornberry
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
2015–2016		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Chair of the Labour Party
2013–2014		Succeeded by
Jim Kennedy
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