Anna Turley
MP
Turley in 2017
Member of Parliament
for Redcar
Assumed office
7 May 2015
Preceded by Ian Swales
Majority 9,485 (22.3%)
Personal details
Born (1978-10-09) 9 October 1978 (age 45)
Dartford, England
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Anna Catherine Turley[1] (born 9 October 1978) is a British Labour Co-operative politician. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar since the 2015 general election.[2]

Early career

Turley was formerly a civil servant, initially working on youth crime issues, and later moved to the Department for Work and Pensions specialising in child poverty issues.[3]

Political career

Turley in 2015

From 2001 to 2005, Turley was a fast-stream civil servant at the Home Office. In 2005, she then became a special adviser in the Department for Work and Pensions under David Blunkett, then in 2006 the Cabinet Office under Hilary Armstrong.[3][4] In 2006, she stood for election as a Labour council candidate for Wandsworth Common.[5]

In 2007, Turley worked for public relations agency The Ledbury Group.[6] In April 2008, she became deputy director of the local government research organisation the New Local Government Network,[6] and in 2010 co-founded the Co-operative Councils Innovation Network designed to enable local authorities to work in partnership with local communities.[3][7]

Turley was shortlisted for the North West Durham seat for the 2010 general election but lost out to Pat Glass.[8] In 2011, Turley founded a consultancy and online forum ProgLoc (Progressive Localism) for progressive debate of key issues affecting local government,[9][10][11] and became an associate researcher for the NGO Future of London.[12][13] In 2012 Turley was listed as a speaker for the New Labour pressure group Progress.[14] In 2013, Turley became a senior research fellow at IPPR North.[15]

In 2013, Turley was selected to stand in the Redcar constituency from an all-women shortlist,[4] in a contentious selection that ultimately was associated with the resignation of ten Labour councillors.[16][17]

After becoming the member of parliament for Redcar at the May 2015 general election, Turley was appointed as a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee in July 2015.[18] She supported Andy Burnham in the 2015 leadership election.[19]

Soon after becoming an MP, Turley had to respond to major local employer SSI UK, which operated Teesside Steelworks, going into liquidation,[20][21] leading to about 3,000 local job losses. The steelworks had once employed about 40,000.[22]

In September 2015, the newly elected Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appointed Turley as shadow civil society minister in his first shadow cabinet.[3] Turley resigned in June 2016 as part of a mass shadow cabinet resignation in protest at Corbyn's leadership.[23] In the 2016 leadership election campaign soon afterwards, Turley was critical of Corbyn stating he was "completely out of touch with reality", and supported Owen Smith for leader.[24]

In October 2016, Turley joined the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.[25] She introduced a Private Members Bill to increase the maximum sentences available to the courts for specified offences related to animal cruelty to five years.[26]

In the 2017 general election, Turley was re-elected with 23,623 votes, a share of 55.5%.[27] In November 2017, it was announced that Turley had withdrawn from work at Westminster for the rest of the year in order to recuperate following emergency surgery.[28]

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  5. Andrew Teale. "Local Election Results 2006 – Wandsworth". Local Elections Archive Project. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2016. 
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  7. "Anna Turley given shadow responsibility for charity sector". Third Sector. 24 September 2015. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015. 
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  11. "Companies House – PROGLOC LIMITED". Companies House. Company No. 07605429. Archived from the original on 4 February 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2016. 
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  14. "Speaker List for CLPs". Progress. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. 
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  18. "Home Affairs Committee: Committee membership announced". Parliament of the United Kingdom. 8 July 2015. Archived from the original on 22 August 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2016. 
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  25. "Anna Turley MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2018-03-26. 
  26. "Animal Cruelty (Sentencing) Bill 2016-17 — UK Parliament". services.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2018-03-26. 
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