Christine McCafferty
Member of Parliament
for Calder Valley
In office
1 May 1997 – 12 April 2010
Preceded bySir Donald Thompson
Succeeded byCraig Whittaker
Personal details
Born (1945-10-14) 14 October 1945
Manchester, Lancashire, England
Political partyLabour
SpouseDavid Tarlo

Christine McCafferty (née Livesley; born 14 October 1945) is a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Calder Valley from 1997 to 2010 when she retired.

Early life

Born in Manchester, she attended Whalley Range High School in Whalley Range, Manchester, then Footscray High School in Melbourne, Australia. She worked as welfare worker for disabled people for the Manchester Community Health Service from 1963 to 1970. From 1970 to 1972, she was an education welfare officer for the Manchester Education Committee. From 1978 to 1980, she was Registrar of Marriages for Bury registration district. From 1989 to 1997, she was a project manager for Calderdale Well Woman Centre.[1][2]

Before her election to parliament, McCafferty was a member of Hebden Royd Town Council 1991–95. She was also a councillor on Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council 1991–7, where she was chair of the Adoption Panel 1992–6. She served as member of the West Yorkshire Police Authority 1994–7.[2][3]

Parliamentary career

McCafferty was selected as a New Labour candidate through an all-women shortlist.[2][4] She was elected in the 1997 Labour landslide, replacing the Conservative Sir Donald Thompson who had held the seat since 1979. Her election was subject of the book This England by Pete Davies.[5] She held the seat in the 2001 and 2005 general elections despite Tory resurgence.

In Parliament, she was a member of the Procedure Committee 1997–9, and of the International Development Committee 2001–5. Since 1999, she has also been a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, chairing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health.[6] She was the author of the McCafferty Report,[7] which proposed to limit the freedom of medical professionals to decline to perform controversial medical practices, such as abortion, in order to insure access to medical treatment. The initiative was ultimately defeated when, on 7 October 2010, a narrow majority of Members adopted a number of amendments that turned it into its opposite: it now re-affirms the free exercise of conscientious objection, instead of restricting it.[8]

McCafferty was one of the Labour rebel MPs that voted against British involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[9] Later that year she voted against the hospital reform bill that introduced NHS foundation trusts.[10]

In 2007, McCafferty announced that she would retire at the next general election.[11]

Personal life

McCafferty married Michael McCafferty, with whom she had one son. Later she remarried to David Tarlo.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Vote 2001: Candidates: Christine McCafferty". BBC News. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Roth, Andrew; Criddle, Byron (1998). "Chris(tine) McCAFFERTY '97-" (PDF). Parliamentary Profiles: Four Volume Set. Parliamentary Profile Services Ltd. ISBN 9780900582431. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  3. ↑ "About". Women in Business International. 2003. Archived from the original on 7 February 2005.
  4. ↑ "Years at heart of valley life". Hebden Bridge Times. 14 January 2011. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  5. ↑ Riddell, Peter (19 July 1997). "Green view at grass roots". The Times. No. 65946. London.
  6. ↑ "Home". www.appg-popdevrh.org.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  7. ↑ "Doc. 12347 (20 July 2010), Women's access to lawful medical care: the problem of unregulated use of conscientious objection" (PDF). Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
  8. ↑ "PACE - Resolution 1763 (2010) - The right to conscientious objection in lawful medical care". assembly.coe.int. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  9. ↑ "The full list of Labour rebels". The Times. No. 67714. London. 19 March 2003.
  10. ↑ "Blair's hospital Bill could be lost after Commons revolt". The Times. No. 67925. London. 20 November 2003.
  11. ↑ "McCafferty to stand down at next election". Evening Courier. Halifax. 7 May 2007. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007 – via archive.org.
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