Debbie Abrahams
Encyclopedia
Deborah Angela Elspeth Abrahams (born 15 September 1960) is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 politician, who has been the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 Member of Parliament for the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency since a by-election in January 2011
Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, 2011
The 2011 by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth was a by-election for the Parliament of the United Kingdom's House of Commons constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth held on 13 January 2011...

. Her previous career was as a public health consultant.

Early and professional life

Abrahams was born in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

, the daughter of a dentist. She studied biochemistry and physiology at the University of Salford
University of Salford
The University of Salford is a campus university based in Salford, Greater Manchester, England with approximately 20,000 registered students. The main campus is about west of Manchester city centre, on the A6, opposite the former home of the physicist, James Prescott Joule and the Working Class...

, and her early employment was as a community worker for a charity in Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe
Wythenshawe is a district in the south of the city of Manchester, England.Formerly part of the administrative county of Cheshire, in 1931 Wythenshawe was transferred to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s to resolve the problem of its inner...

 in south Manchester, where she set up job training programmes for teenagers. She later studied for a Masters degree at the University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...

. Abrahams was head of healthy cities for Knowsley
Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley
The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It comprises the towns of Kirkby, Prescot, Huyton, Whiston, Halewood and Cronton; Kirkby, Huyton, and Prescot being the major commercial centres...

 and served on the board of Bury and Rochdale Health Authority. In 2002 Abrahams was appointed chair of Rochdale
Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England. It is named after its largest town, Rochdale, but spans a far larger area which includes the towns of Middleton, Heywood, Littleborough and Milnrow, and the village of Wardle.The borough was...

 Primary Care Trust. In June 2006 she resigned from this role, expressing her anger at the use of private health companies in the NHS.

From 2006 to 2010 she was Director of the International Health Impact Assessment Consortium at the University of Liverpool. She married John Abrahams
John Abrahams
John Abrahams was a left-handed batsman and right arm off break bowler. His brothers Basil and Peter Abrahams, and his late father Cec Abrahams, were also cricketers....

, a former captain of Lancashire County cricket team
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...

, in the late 1980s. They have two daughters.

Political career

Shortly after resigning from the Rochdale Primary Care Trust, Abrahams joined the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

, declaring that she wanted "to challenge health policy at a local and national level to ensure that it reflects [the] core values" of the NHS. She was appointed by Simon Danczuk
Simon Danczuk
Simon Christopher Danczuk is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Rochdale since 2010.-Early life and career:...

, then Labour candidate for Rochdale
Rochdale (UK Parliament constituency)
Rochdale is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

, as his advisor on health, and she stood for Rochdale borough council in Milnrow and Newhey ward in the 2008 local elections
Rochdale Council election, 2008
Elections to Rochdale Council in Greater Manchester, England were held on 1 May 2008. One third of the council was up for election. The Liberal Democrats stayed in control of the council after gaining seats in Balderstone and Kirkholt, and North Heywood from the Labour party but losing East...

.

At the 2010 general election, Abrahams was the Labour Party candidate for Colne Valley
Colne Valley (UK Parliament constituency)
Colne Valley is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. In the post-war period the seat had the distinction of being one of the few Labour/Liberal marginals,...

; she made a plea to Liberal Democrat voters to back her in order to stop the Conservatives winning power. She was unsuccessful in retaining the seat, which had previously been held by Labour, and ended up in third place. The victorious Conservative MP Jason McCartney
Jason McCartney
Jason McCartney is a former Australian rules footballer, 2002 Bali bombing survivor and coach of the AIS/AFL Academy...

 said after the election that Abrahams had run "a good, positive campaign" and that in the light of bad-tempered exchanges between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, he was not surprised that she was close to coming second. Shortly after the general election, Abrahams was selected to fight the Lib Dem held Golcar
Golcar
Golcar is a village located on a hillside crest above the Colne Valley in West Yorkshire, England, west of Huddersfield, and just north of the River Colne and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal...

 ward of Kirklees
Kirklees
The Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 401,000 and includes the settlements of Batley, Birstall, Cleckheaton, Denby Dale, Dewsbury, Heckmondwike, Holmfirth, Huddersfield, Kirkburton, Marsden, Meltham, Mirfield and Slaithwaite...

 council at the 2011 local elections, she stood down from this in the run-in to the Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election however.

Oldham East and Saddleworth

In December 2010 she was placed on a shortlist of three to be the Labour Party candidate for the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, with speculation that she was the preferred candidate. She was selected as Labour's candidate and went on to win the seat with a majority of 3,558 with 42.1% of the vote.

External links

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