SHE’S the feminist MP that forced a change in the law letting Northern Irish women get free abortions on the NHS in England.
But what else is there to know about Stella Creasy and her political career? Here’s the lowdown on one of Labour’s leading ladies.
Who is Stella Creasy? What’s her background?
Stella Creasy was born in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids., in 1977 to an opera singing father and a headmistress mother.
Both her parents were Labour Party activists, a trait they clearly passed on to their daughter.
She has an older brother who is an academic.
Shortly after her birth the family moved to Manchester before settling in Colchester, Essex where she attended the local girls grammar school.
From there Creasy went on to study at Cambridge University and the London School of Economics.
After leaving university she interned at the influential socialist organisation, The Fabian Society.
In 2010 she was chosen from an all women shortlist to run as Labour Party candidate for Walthamstow, a position she holds to this day.
What has she done to change abortion law in Northern Ireland?
Following the 2017 General Election Stella Creasy put forward a proposal which would give women from Northern Ireland access to abortions on the NHS if they travel to England.
The proposal was set to be supported by a handful of Tories as well as most opposition MPs – possibly giving it enough votes to pass.
That would have placed the whole Queen’s Speech in jeopardy, because the DUP are staunchly anti-abortion and may have refused to back a Government programme which includes the controversial amendment.
If Mrs May lost the main vote on the Queen’s Speech this evening, she would have to resign as PM and give Jeremy Corbyn the chance to form an alternative government.
This afternoon, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that Northern Irish women will be able to access free abortions in England in a bid to prevent a rebellion.
Justine Greening, the Equalities Minister, then sent a letter to MPs confirming that the Government Equalities Office would foot the bill for any women from Northern Ireland who come to England in order to have an abortion.
Following the Chancellor’s announcement Creasy tweeted: Woah – chancellor just told house going 2 fund abortions 4 NI women in England. No detail as yet so asking for clarity.. #MyPledgeHerChoice
What happened between Stella Creasy and Momentum?
Creasy has not been Jeremy Corbyn’s biggest fan since the veteran left winger swept to the leadership of the Labour Party.
She ran for deputy leader of the party at the same time but lost out to Tom Watson.
Following her criticism of her leader pro-Corbyn lobby group within the party Momentum allegedly tried to have her deselected as an MP.
She said: “Groups like Momentum now appear to be draining the very energy from our political process they claimed to be promoting.
“In the last six months I’ve seen little evidence of campaigning ‘for’ something.
“I have seen a lot of meetings and moralising – and a lot of people standing for positions to be able to divert people into more meetings and moralising to complete the cycle.”
She has also criticised the Labour leader for his calls to decriminalise the sex industry.
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