Rosie Cooper

Rosemary Elizabeth Cooper (born 5 September 1950) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Lancashire since 2005.

Early years

Cooper was born in Liverpool, the daughter of deaf parents. She was educated locally, initially at St Oswald's Roman Catholic Primary School and at Bellerive Convent Grammar School (now known as Bellerive FCJ High School on Ullet Road (A5089) in Dingle, Liverpool. She then attended the University of Liverpool.

Working life

Cooper originally worked for a company called W. Cooper Ltd 1973-1980 before joining Littlewoods initially as a buyer, when in 1994 she became the public relations manager and then, in 1995, the group corporate communications manager. She became a project coordinator in 1999 before she left Littlewoods in 2001, when she was appointed director at the Merseyside Centre for the Deaf.

Liberal Democrat days

Cooper was elected, aged 22, to the Liverpool City Council as a Liberal councillor in 1973, and in 1992 became the Lord Mayor of Liverpool; she stood down from the city council in 2000.

She fought her first Westminster campaign at the 1983 General Election when she was selected to contest the safe Labour seat of Liverpool Garston where she finished in third place more than 14,000 votes behind the winner Eddie Loyden.

Next Cooper contested the 1986 Knowsley North by-election caused by the resignation to become a television presenter of the Labour MP Robert Kilroy-Silk. The by-election was won by Labour's George Howarth, with a clear margin of 6,724 vote, and she did not do much better when she contested the seat again a few months later at the 1987 General Election finishing 21,098 votes behind Howarth.

At the 1992 General Election, now a Liberal Democrat, she was back in her native Liverpool, coming second at Liverpool Broadgreen 7,027 votes behind Labour's Jane Kennedy, but ahead of the former deselected Labour MP Terry Fields.

Labour days

She joined the Labour Party and contested the European Parliament elections in 2004 in the North West region. She became the party's candidate from an all female short list in the West Lancashire constituency at the 2005 general election following the retirement of the sitting MP Colin Pickthall. Cooper was elected to the House of Commons at her fifth attempt with a majority of 6,084, and remains the MP there. She made her maiden speech on 24 May 2005.^[1]

Since her election she has been a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, and was part of the successful campaign that stopped the merger of the Southport and Ormskirk hospitals. In June 2006 she became PPS (Rt Hon Lord Rooker, Minister of State), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

On 9 August 2006, the Daily Telegraph reported that Cooper had written to No 10 saying that some of her constituents were 'appalled' by the idea that such a divisive figure as Lady Thatcher - who was Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 - could be given a state funeral.^[2]

References

External links

• Her webpage
• The Labour Party - Rosie Cooper
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Rosie Cooper
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Rosie Cooper
• BBC Politics page

News items

• Thatcher's future funeral irks her in August 2006