A little bit about me...

I was born and brought up in the small coastal town of South Shields. I'm proud to say that it is the only constituency in existence since the Great Reform Act of 1832 never to have elected a Conservative MP...long may it remain so. I've been in West Yorkshire now since 1999.

The oldest of five children, my mother is a shop assistant and my father drives ambulances for the local authority. I attended the local comprehensive school in the 1980's. I was the first person in my family to go on to further education and then on to University. My experiences at school influenced my passion for education and belief in education for all, not just for those families who can afford it.

I'm proud that thanks to Labour my old prefab school is finally being rebuilt and transformed into a state of the art £19 million facility.

Like many families, during the 1990s my family home was repossessed. There were no council houses available so we were forced to move into my grandmother's two bedroom house. There were seven of us cramped into two small rooms for over two years.

I'm proud that Labour delivered the Decent Homes Programme which has helped to deliver over a £20 billion investment for major improvements in social housing conditions - lifting over one million households out of cold, damp or poor housing and turning round the £19 billion maintenance backlog left by the Tories.

In 2002 I was elected as the Finance and Commercial Services Officer at Leeds University Union (LUU) where I represented the interests and campaigned on behalf of over 30,000 members locally and nationally. I was also elected by fellow officers in the region to sit on the National Council of the National Union of Students (NUS) . I have also been a board member of Unipol Student Homes and a trustee of University of Leeds and Leeds University Union.

I was the first officer in knowledge at Leeds to be re-elected for a second term in 2003. In 2004 I took up the post of Events & Productions Coordinator for the University of Leeds, planning and marketing events, conferences and theatre productions.

In 2005 I began working for the newly elected Mary Creagh MP in Wakefield as her Senior Caseworker and later her Office Manager. In 2009 I began work as the Office Manager and Press Officer for Labour MP, Ann Cryer in Keighley.