Clare Moody | |
|---|---|
_(34309883872)_(cropped).jpg) Moody in 2017 | |
| Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset | |
| Assumed office 9 May 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Mark Shelford |
| Member of the European Parliament forSouth West England | |
| In office 1 July 2014 – 1 July 2019 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Clare Miranda Moody (1965-10-30)30 October 1965 (age 59) Chipping Norton,Oxfordshire, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | University of Kent |
| Website | Official website |
Clare Miranda Moody (born 30 October 1965) is a British politician serving asPolice and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset since 2024. A member of theLabour Party, she served as aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) forSouth West England from 2014 to 2019.
Clare Miranda Moody was born on 30 October 1965 inChipping Norton, Oxfordshire to Joan and Raymond Moody.[1][2] Brought up inBurford, her father served as town mayor and both her parents wereConservative Party activists.[3][2]
Moody trained as a secretary. Later she studiedindustrial relations at theUniversity of Kent and began her career in trade unionism at theBanking, Insurance and Finance Union (BIFU).[4] BIFU went through several amalgamations to becomeUNIFI,Amicus, and laterUnite, where she worked as a regional officer inBournemouth.[5]
Moody worked in theNumber 10 Policy Unit under Prime MinisterGordon Brown.[3][6] She was the Labour candidate forSalisbury, a safe Conservative seat, at the2005 general election.[3] Moody also stood to become the inauguralWiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner,[7] reaching the second round as Labour's candidate in the2012 election.[8]
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Moody unsuccessfully contestedSouth West England in the2004 European Parliament election, in fourth position on the Labour Party list.[3] However, she was elected as aMember of European Parliament for the region in theMay 2014 elections, now placed as the lead list candidate.[9]
During her tenure in the European Parliament, Moody served as vice-chair of theSubcommittee on Security and Defence. She has also been a member of theBudget,Foreign Affairs,Industry, Research and Energy, andWomen's Rights committees.[10][11][12]
She was a MEP delegate to theEuronest Parliamentary Assembly, a group offormer Soviet Union state parliaments inEastern Europe aspiring to closer political and economic ties with theEuropean Union.[10] She was co-chair of the Friends of Georgia group, and worked on theEU-Georgia Association Agreement through her Foreign Affairs committee membership.[13][14] Moody voted in favour of theDirective on Copyright in the Digital Single Market in 2019, despite concerns that the legislation enforced censorship on EU internet users.[15]
Moody lost her seat in the2019 European Parliament election, when no Labour candidate was returned in South West England.
Moody was appointed Political Director atpublic relations companyGrayling in 2019, a subsidiary ofHuntsworth, where she later became Senior Strategic Director.[16][17][18] In 2021, she was appointed co-CEO of the human rights and equality charityEqually Ours.[19][20]
In 2022, Moody unsuccessfully stood to become the Labour Parliamentary candidate forStroud.[19][21] She was later selected as the Labour candidate for the 2024Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner election.[22]
Moody was electedAvon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner for theLabour and Co-operative Party on 3 May 2024.[23][24]
Moody supported the remain campaign in the2016 EU membership referendum,[25] and supported a delay beforeinvoking Article 50 to allow for negotiations post-referendum.[26] She supported Britain staying in theEuropean single market and theCustoms Union post-Brexit.[27] She chaired theLabour Movement for Europe from 2017 to 2019, and campaigned fora second referendum on the final Brexit deal.[28]
In 2018, Moody argued that the EU and UK defence and security relationship should remain close despiteBrexit, and that closerEuropean Union–NATO relations would assist in that and reduce wasteful duplication of effort.[11]
She credited the loss of her European Parliamentary seat in 2019 to Labour'sBrexit position, arguing that the party needed to adopt a clear pro-EU stance.[29] In 2023,The New European reported that she acknowledged Britain would not rejoin in the next parliament, but believed rejoining "will become a question again. For a growth agenda, we have to fix our relationship with the EU."[30]
Moody supportedYvette Cooper in the2015 Labour Party leadership election.[31] During the leadership challenge toJeremy Corbyn inJune 2016, she supported calls for his resignation.[32]
Moody has resided inSalisbury, Wiltshire.[3] She has a son.[4]
