Siobhain McDonagh



Siobhain Ann McDonagh (born 20 February 1960) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mitcham and Morden since the 1997 general election. She served as an Assistant Whip in the Labour Government of Gordon Brown.

Parliamentary career
McDonagh was selected to stand in the 1997 election for Labour through an all-women shortlist.

She was first elected in 1997 on her third attempt, defeating the Conservative incumbent, Dame Angela Rumbold, who was her opponent in both the 1987 and 1992 General Elections.

After the 2001 election, Tony Blair offered McDonagh the position of Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Communities, however she declined the offer and remained a backbencher. Later she was successful, along with Merton Council, in getting the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, to locate the new critical care hospital at St Helier near the southern edge of her constituency. This overturned a decision by local health chiefs to locate the hospital at a site in Sutton, a number of miles away from her constituency.

After the May 2005 General Election she served as PPS to Dr. John Reid while he served as Secretary of State for Defence and from May 2006 to June 2007 Secretary of State for the Home Department. She was appointed to the position of Assistant Whip on 28 June 2007 in the re-shuffle brought about by Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister.

Mobile phone theft
In October 2010 her mobile phone was stolen from her car. Although not implicated in the robbery itself, it became evident that The Sun newspaper had accessed the phone, including messages stored on it. She subsequently won substantial damages against the newspaper in March 2013.