Catherine McKinnell | |||||||||||||||||||
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 Official portrait, 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of State for School Standards | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 8 July 2024 – 6 September 2025 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Damian Hinds | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Georgia Gould | ||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament forNewcastle upon Tyne North | |||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 6 May 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Doug Henderson | ||||||||||||||||||
| Majority | 17,762 (36.5%) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Chair of thePetitions Committee | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 29 January 2020 – 5 September 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Helen Jones | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Cat Smith | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Catherine Grady (1976-06-08)8 June 1976 (age 49) Newcastle upon Tyne, England | ||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Labour | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh Northumbria University | ||||||||||||||||||
| Website | catherinemckinnellmp | ||||||||||||||||||
Catherine McKinnell (born 8 June 1976) is a BritishLabour Party politician who has served as theMember of Parliament (MP) forNewcastle upon Tyne North since2010.[1] She served asMinister of State for School Standards from 2024 to 2025.
Catherine McKinnell was born on 8 June 1976 inNewcastle upon Tyne, where she attendedSacred Heart Catholic High School inFenham.[2] She studied politics and history at theUniversity of Edinburgh.[3] After leaving Edinburgh, Catherine went on to study Law atNorthumbria University.
After university, McKinnell worked as an employment solicitor atDickinson Dees, a Newcastle law firm.[3]
At the2010 general election, McKinnell was elected to Parliament as MP forNewcastle upon Tyne North with a vote share of 40.8% and a majority of 3,414.[4][5][6][7]
In October 2010, the Labour LeaderEd Miliband appointed McKinnell to the role ofShadow Solicitor General, where she was responsible for the party's response to theNews International phone hacking scandal.[8] She raised questions about theCrown Prosecution Service's handling of the scandal, including a question to theAttorney General in the House of Commons asking why the CPS had refused for so long to admit that there were grounds to bring prosecutions.[9]
In October 2011, during a shadow ministerial reshuffle, McKinnell was made shadow children's minister, shadowingTim Loughton. In that post she criticised the adoption process as too slow and called for immediate improvements in support for social workers and family courts to speed up the process.[10][11] She also accused the government of doing too little to help children for whom adoption was not suitable and following this, requested a guarantee that the government would give priority to placing children in "happy homes."[12]
In June 2012, after the resignation ofPeter Hain, she was then moved to become Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, replacingOwen Smith. McKinnell backed a campaign byActionAid on international tax laws[13] and tabled amendments to the Budget which would have required the government to monitor the impact on developing countries of changes to so-called Controlled Foreign Companies regulations. She said, "It seems a false economy to invest ... in changes that will undermine the very progress towards which our international aid money, which increases year on year, is going".[14]
Also in June 2012, McKinnell publicly criticisedTake That singerGary Barlow following newspaper allegations oftax avoidance made against him. McKinnell agreed that Barlow should consider returning his recently awardedOBE if allegations of tax avoidance were proven "because it doesn't send out the right messages to ordinary people who are paying their fair share of tax".[15]
At the2015 general election, McKinnell was re-elected as MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North with an increased vote share of 46.1% and an increased majority of 10,153.[16]
McKinnell was madeShadow Attorney General in September 2015 by Labour leaderJeremy Corbyn, but resigned in January 2016, citing party infighting, family reasons and the ability to speak in parliament beyond her legal portfolio.[17] She supportedOwen Smith in the failed attempt to replaceJeremy Corbyn in the2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election.[18]
McKinnell has been a prominent campaigner for theWomen Against State Pension Inequality campaign. In December 2015, following the acceleration of the equalisation of the State Pension Age, she argued that the acceleration has happened too quickly and left female pensioners uncertain.[19] McKinnell was also made Vice Chair of the recently establishedAll-Party Parliamentary Group on the WASPI campaign.[20]
At the snap2017 general election, McKinnell was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 55.4% and an increased majority of 10,349.[21][22] She was again re-elected at the2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 45.4% and a decreased majority of 5,765.[23]
In September 2020, McKinnell was appointed a vice-chair ofLabour Friends of Israel.[24]
In the2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle she returned to the frontbench as Shadow Schools Minister, replacingStephen Morgan.[25]
At the2024 general election, McKinnell was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 50.3% and an increased majority of 17,762.[26] She served asMinister of State for School Standards from 2024 to 2025.[27][28] She left the government in the2025 British cabinet reshuffle.[29]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forNewcastle upon Tyne North 2010–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury 2012–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Attorney General 2015–2016 | Succeeded by |
