Pam Cox | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of Parliament forColchester | |
| Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Will Quince |
| Majority | 8,250 (18.4%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Southend-on-Sea,Essex, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge (BA) and (Ph.D.) |
| Academic background | |
| Thesis | Rescue and reform Girls, delinquency and industrial schools 1908-1933 (1997) |
Pamela Margaret Cox is a BritishLabour Party politician and academic who has served asMember of Parliament (MP) forColchester since2024.
Pamela Cox was brought up inSouthend. Her mother was a midwife before becoming a nurse. Her father left school at the age of 15 and was apprenticed as a joiner before joining the church and becoming a minister. She has two sisters, both of whom became nurses in south Essex.[1]
Cox studied history atRobinson College, Cambridge,[2] and in 1997 was awarded a PhD for a thesis on the history of girls' delinquency in Britain.[3] Prior to her election as an MP, she was a professor of social history and criminology at theUniversity of Essex, and has been a fellow of theRoyal Society of Arts since 2017. She presented theBBC documentary series,Shopgirls: The True Story of Life Behind the Counter andServants: The True Story of Life Below Stairs, and has contributed to historical and cultural programmes forChannel 4 andChannel 5 includingEdwardian Britain in Colour.[3]
In 1994, Cox joined theLabour Party.[4] She has been aNew Town and Christ Church councillor since May 2021, and on 5 November 2022 she became theLabour Partyprospective parliamentary candidate in the2024 general election forColchester.[5][6][7] At the election, she took the seat from theConservative Party with 18,804 votes, a majority of 18.4% over the Conservative candidateJames Cracknell who won 10,554 votes.[8] Her election to Parliament made her the first Labour MP to win the seat sinceCharles Delacourt-Smith in the1945 general election and the first woman to represent the constituency in its history.[9]
In September 2024, Cox followed the Labour government in voting tomeans test theWinter Fuel Payment, so only low-income pensioners who claimedPension Credit would receive it.[10][11] After facing criticism by the ColchesterLiberal Democrats, Cox said she did not want to vote for this measure but that it was necessary for the Labour government to make "tough decisions" to stabilise the country.[10][11] In October 2024, she gave her support to the Labour government's offer of £1 million toEssex County Council to fund its own financial assistance scheme for pensioners affected by this change.[10]
In November 2024 and June 2025, Cox voted in favour of theTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at its second and third readings, which proposes to legaliseassisted dying forterminally ill adults in England and Wales.[12][13] This made her the only MP in North Essex to vote for the bill.[14] Explaining her support for the bill, Cox said she believed in personal freedom and the free choice for people to do want they with their own bodies as long as it is within the law, including the ability to choose "a compassionate and dignified death", while also maintaining that there must be legal safeguards in place to "ensure that only those with the capacity to make a clear, settled and informed decision are eligible". She also said there was "now a clear majority of the public who support a change in the law" and that the decision of Parliament should reflect this.[14] Later that month, she voted in favour of theCrime and Policing Bill, which woulddecriminalise abortion for the entire duration of pregnancy.[15]
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forColchester 2024–present | Incumbent |
