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Alison Seabeck

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Alison Seabeck
Shadow Minister of State for Defence
In office
7 October 2011 – 7 May 2015
LeaderEd Miliband
Member of Parliament
for Plymouth Moor View
Plymouth Devonport (2005–2010)
In office
5 May 2005 – 30 March 2015
Preceded byDavid Jamieson
Succeeded byJohnny Mercer
Personal details
Born (1954-01-20) 20 January 1954 (age 70)
Dagenham, Essex, England
Political partyLabour
Spouses
Denis Seabeck
​
​
(m. 1975, divorced)​
​
(m. 2012)​
Children2 daughters
Alma materNorth East London Polytechnic
Websitehttp://alisonseabeck.org.uk

Alison Jane Seabeck (née Ward, 20 January 1954) is a former British politician. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Plymouth Devonport from 2005 until 2010 when she won the new seat of Plymouth Moor View, before losing the seat to Johnny Mercer of the Conservative Party at the 2015 general election. In opposition, Seabeck was a shadow Housing and Defence Minister.[1]

Early life

Before her marriage, Seabeck was known as Alison Ward.[2] She is the daughter of Michael Ward, a former Labour member of parliament for Peterborough,[3] and was educated at the Harold Hill Grammar School in Harold Hill, Havering, London, and the North East London Polytechnic in Stratford (now the University of East London). Seabeck was a member of the MSF Union (now Unite), and while working as a researcher at the House of Commons became the secretary of the South Thames Community Branch. In 2005 she was also a member of the feminist Fawcett Society and the Labour Women's Network.[4]

Political career

In March 2005, Seabeck was selected from an all-women shortlist to stand for Labour in the Plymouth Devonport seat.[5]

She was elected at the 2005 general election with a majority of 8,103, replacing David Jamieson. From 2007 to 2008 she served as a Government Whip attached to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.[6] She chaired the South West Regional Select Committee between 2009 and 2010 and sat on the Local Government Select Committee and the Regulatory Reform Select Committee between 2005 and 2007. Between 2006 and 2007, and again from 2008 to 2009, she was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Geoff Hoon.[7]

At the 2010 general election, Seabeck successfully held her seat in Plymouth Moor View.[8] The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2010 described her as having a "very low profile".[7]

On 11 October 2010, Seabeck was appointed Shadow Housing Minister,[9] working with Caroline Flint, the then Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. On 7 October 2011, she was appointed Shadow Defence Minister[10] during Ed Miliband's reshuffle.

In December 2010, it was revealed that Seabeck was under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in relation to declaration of member's interests.[11][12] Seabeck was subsequently asked to apologise for speaking in a debate on fire safety without declaring that her partner, MP Nick Raynsford was a member of the Fire Protection Association.[13]

She was also a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Defence Reform Act 2014[14]

In 2014, she tried to introduce an exemption from the so-called 'bedroom tax' so that victims of domestic violence with a "panic room" installed were no longer penalised for the additional room.[15]

At the 2015 general election, Seabeck again stood in Plymouth Moor View, but was defeated by the Conservative candidate Johnny Mercer.[16]

Personal life

Alison Ward married Denis G. Seabeck in September 1975 in the London Borough of Havering.[2] They have two daughters.[4] On 5 October 2012, at the National Maritime Museum, she married Nick Raynsford, the Labour MP for Greenwich & Woolwich, for whom she had worked as a researcher before entering Parliament. They were reported to have been together for six years before marrying.[17]

References

  1. ^ "Parliamentary career for Alison Seabeck - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b Marriages September 1975, freebmd.org, accessed 9 December 2022 “WARD Alison J / SEABECK Denis G / HAVERING / Vol. 13 / p. 156”
  3. ^ Alan Lee Williams, Michael Ward Labour MP and local government expert, The Guardian, 10 April 2009, accessed 9 December 2022
  4. ^ a b "Meet the MP: Alison Seabeck". BBC News. 20 June 2005.
  5. ^ "Labour selects female candidate". BBC News. 24 March 2005.
  6. ^ "Alison Seabeck". Politics.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  7. ^ a b The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2010. London: Times Books. 2010. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-00-735158-9.
  8. ^ "2010 election, Plymouth Moor View". BBC. Archived from the original on 12 March 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  9. ^ "Alison Seabeck to be shadow housing minister". Inside Housing. Archived from the original on 18 December 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  10. ^ "Alison Seabeck has been appointed shadow defence minister". AlisonSeabeck.org.uk. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
  11. ^ Beckford, Martin (9 December 2010). "MPs' expenses: 17 MPs were re-elected after secret deals on expenses". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  12. ^ "'Secretly' resolved MPs' expenses cases made public". The Guardian. London. 9 December 2010.
  13. ^ "Labour MP Alison Seabeck breached disclosure rules". BBC. 3 March 2011. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  14. ^ "House of Commons Public Bill Committee on the Defence Reform Bill 2013–14". Parliament.uk. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  15. ^ "Plymouth MP to call for exemption from bedroom tax for domestic abuse victims". Plymouth Herald. 28 April 2014. Archived from the original on 8 July 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  16. ^ "Plymouth Moor View". BBC. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  17. ^ Trotter, Sarah (26 October 2012). "Greenwich MP Nick Raynsford ties the knot with fellow MP Alison Seabeck at National Maritime Museum". News Shopper.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Plymouth Devonport
2005–2010 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Plymouth Moor View
2010–2015 		Succeeded by
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