The Baroness Clark of Kilwinning | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2021 | |
| Member of the Scottish Parliament forWest Scotland (1 of 7 Regional MSPs) | |
| Assumed office 6 May 2021 | |
| Member of the House of Lords | |
| Life peerage 3 September 2020 | |
| Member of Parliament forNorth Ayrshire and Arran | |
| In office 5 May 2005 – 30 March 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Brian Wilson[a] |
| Succeeded by | Patricia Gibson |
| Scottish Labour portfolios | |
| 2021–present | Shadow Minister for Community Safety |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kathryn Sloan Clark (1967-07-03)3 July 1967 (age 58) Kilwinning,North Ayrshire, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Party | Labour |
| Children | 1 daughter |
| Alma mater | University of Aberdeen University of Edinburgh |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Solicitor |
Katy Clark, Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (born 3 July 1967),[1] is a British politician andlife peer who has served as aMember of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for theWest Scotland region since the2021 Scottish Parliament election. A member of theLabour Party, she was previously theMember of Parliament (MP) forNorth Ayrshire and Arran from2005 to2015.
Clark was born inKilwinning, and went to Ayr Grammar Primary School thenKyle Academy, both inAyr, before attending theUniversity of Aberdeen,[2][3] receiving anLLB in 1990. She was Chair of Aberdeen University Labour Club, NUS (Scotland) Women's Officer and active in women's campaigns, anti-poll tax campaigning, and the campaigns against theGulf andIraq Wars. She received aDiploma in Legal Practice from theUniversity of Edinburgh in 1991.[3] She qualified as a solicitor in England, Scotland and Wales specialising in civil litigation, criminal defence work and employment law. She was active in theMSF trade union and Edinburgh and District Trades Council in the 1990s before joining theTGWU in 1998.
She was asolicitor in private practice inEdinburgh andMusselburgh from 1991 to 1998,[4] an Executive Member of the Scottish Council for Civil Liberties, and a legal officer, then Head of Membership Legal Services withUNISON[5] nationally from 1998 to 2005. Whilst at the latter organisation, she undertook employment litigation, including Europe's biggest equal pay case, in which she won £35m in back pay for female nurses and other medical staff in the North West of England who had been unlawfully underpaid compared with their male colleagues.[4][6]
She joined the Labour Party at the age of seventeen[7] and is a member of theUnite, GMB and UNISON trade unions. Her great-great grandfather,Alexander ("Sandy") Sloan, was Labour MP forSouth Ayrshire from 1939 until his death in 1945.[5]
Clark unsuccessfully contested theparliamentary seat ofGalloway and Upper Nithsdale at the1997 general election, a traditionalConservative andScottish National Party (SNP) marginal. She finished in third place behind theSecretary of State for Trade and IndustryIan Lang, who lost his seat to theSNP'sAlasdair Morgan.[8]
She was elected to the House of Commons at the2005 general election for the new seat ofNorth Ayrshire and Arran, based substantially on the former seat ofCunninghame North, whose MPBrian Wilson had retired, and the towns ofStevenston and Kilwinning from the oldCunninghame South.[9] She had a majority of 11,296,[10] and made hermaiden speech on 7 June 2005.[11] She was nominated forHouse magazine's 'Maiden Speech of the Year'. Following the election,The Guardian named her as one of eight new MPs "to watch".[5]
One of the few left-wing members of Labour's 2005 intake of MPs,[9] she was a member of theSocialist Campaign Group[12] and a founder member of the Scottish Labour Party Campaign for Socialism.[13] Of the twenty-four members of the Campaign Group, she was the only one under the age of 50.[9][12]
In 2010, Clark was one of only seven MPs to vote for left-wingerDiane Abbott in the2010 Labour Leadership Election.[14] In February 2013, she was among those who gave their support to thePeople's Assembly Against Austerity in a letter published byThe Guardian newspaper,[15] and was co-chair of theLabour Assembly Against Austerity.
Clark established a reputation as a rebel within theParliamentary Labour Party, voting againstID cards.[16] However, she did not consider herself to be a rebel, stating that her "views are consistent with Labour's traditions".[17] She was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to party leaderEd Miliband in January 2015, calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.[18]
Clark campaigned on human rights issues, and was one of 95 Labour MPs who opposed replacing Britain'sTrident nuclear weapons system.[19] She supported a 'No' vote in the2011 AV Referendum.[20]
Clark supported the call for therecognition of the state of Palestine.[21] She was amongst a handful of MPs who opposed the bombing of Libya, and was a member of theCommittees on Arms Export Controls,[22] regularly calling for stricter limits on arms sales.[23]
Clark is a Patron of the Greek Solidarity Campaign.
Clark campaigned to supportEuropean Union emergency plans to ensure safety for migrants crossing the Mediterranean.[24]
Throughout her time as an MP, Clark consistently voted in favour of increased rights forLGBT+ people,[25] including voting in favour ofsame-sex marriage in 2013.[26]
On local issues, she campaigned against the contracting out of Calmac lifeline ferry services, with her first Parliamentary Question being about the tendering of services; for compensation of the victims of the Farepak Christmas savings scheme; against the privatisation of DM Beith; against the closure of Coastguard Stations and job centres; and for the retraining of former workers employed at the closedSimclar factory.[27][28]
She was Secretary of the Trade Union Group of Labour MPs and Chair of theCWU Group of MPs, taking up many trade union, equalities, human rights, consumer and employment rights issues in Parliament. She was also a member of theGMB,UNISON,FBU,Bakers Union,NUJ,UNITE,PCS,RMT,ASLEF andTSSA Parliamentary Groups.[3]
As a member of theBusiness, Innovation and Skills Committee,[22] Clark heldUBS andGoldman Sachs bankers to account, questioning them over their valuation of theRoyal Mail during its privatisation.[29]
Clark was not elected when she stood as a left candidate to be Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2014, arguing for a change in direction.[7] She lost her Commons seat of North Ayrshire and Arran at theMay 2015 general election to the SNP candidatePatricia Gibson.[30]
Clark was an early supporter ofJeremy Corbyn's2015 leadership campaign.[31] a key strategist on the campaign and was appointed as his Political Secretary in November 2015, following his election as leader.[32]
In 2017, Corbyn tasked Clark with leading a review into the democratic functioning of the Labour Party at every level, includingLabour Leadership Elections, the makeup of theNational Executive Committee, giving Labour members greater say in party policy, buildingConstituency Labour Parties, local and regional Government and improving the situation of women, LGBT+, BAME, disabled and young members.[33]
Announcing the review in a message to Labour Members, Clark said:
We want our members to be at the heart of our party – to have more power – over policy, how we campaign, organise and run our party, just as we want the people of Britain to be at the heart of deciding how our communities, economy and society are organised. That is what the democracy review is about.[34]
The Democracy Review reported in September 2018, and rule changes to increase party democracy were adopted.[35] Clark has suggested that she would like these reforms to go further and that some of her proposed reforms were watered down.[36]
Clark was proposed as a candidate to stand inRochdale prior to the2017 general election,[37] having previously withdrawn from consideration for election to theLeigh constituency because of accusations by local members of her being aparachute candidate.[38] Clark was not elected when she stood as a Labour candidate on theLondon list at the2019 European Parliament election.[39] Later in 2019, she was shortlisted along with local councillorsIbrahim Dogus andFlorence Eshalomi for the South London seat ofVauxhall atthat year's general election, securing a personal endorsement fromJohn McDonnell as well as the left-wing campaign groupMomentum.[40] Clark finished in second place losing out to Eshalomi.[41]
Clark was createdBaroness Clark of Kilwinning,ofKilwinning in the County ofAyrshire, on 3 September 2020, under which name she is a member of theHouse of Lords as a Labour peer.[42]
Clark was elected as amember of the Scottish Parliament for theWest Scotland region for the Scottish Labour Party, having also stood as its candidate for theCunninghame North constituency at the2021 Scottish Parliament election.[43] Prior to her election, Clark previously expressed her intent to 'stand down' from the House of Lords if elected to Holyrood.[44] She took a leave of absence in May 2021, due to being elected to the Scottish Parliament.[45]
She was appointed as Shadow Minister for Community Safety in the Scottish Labour shadow cabinet in May 2021.[46]
Clark was one of 5 Labour MSPs who was absent for a Scottish Parliament vote calling for the UK Government to reverse its decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Payment.[47]
Clark is asocialist and was regarded as being on the left of the Parliamentary party when she was an MP.[4] Clark supported the eurosceptic Labour Against the Euro campaign and campaigned against an EU constitution.[48] She was opposed toPrime MinisterBoris Johnson'sBrexit plan, called for asecond referendum and was committed to campaigning for "remain" if such a vote were to take place.[49]
Clark has lived in Scotland andVauxhall, having moved to London in 1998,[50] and has a daughter.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forNorth Ayrshire and Arran 2005–2015 | Succeeded by |
