Geraldine Smith Information & Geraldine Smith Links at HealthHaven.com

Geraldine Smith MP
	Geraldine Smith MP
	Member of Parliament; for Morecambe and Lunesdale
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Mark Lennox-Boyd
Majority	4,768 (48.8%) [1]
Born	29 August 1961 (age 48); Belfast
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour

Maria Geraldine Smith, known as Geraldine Smith, (born 29 August 1961, Belfast) is a politician in the United Kingdom. She has been Labour Member of Parliament for Morecambe and Lunesdale since 1997.

[edit] Early life

She is former pupil of Morecambe High School on Dallam Avenue and Lancaster and Morecambe College on Morecambe Road in Lancaster, where she gained a Diploma in Business Studies. Her first campaign was supported by the Communication Workers Union, for whom she was formerly an officer. Prior to becoming an MP she was a Lancaster City Councillor and worked for the Royal Mail from 1980-97.

[edit] Parliamentary career

After the Labour Party's poor showing in the local government elections of 4 May 2006 she was linked to a campaign [2] on a timetable for Tony Blair's departure as Prime Minister and also expressed a preference for Gordon Brown to succeed him. She also found "outrageous" the survival of John Prescott as a government minister following the reshuffle.[3]. For this criticism of the Deputy Prime Minister's behavior, as well as for her defence of the Chinese Cockle Pickers rights in her Morecambe constituency, the right-wing critic Richard Littlejohn described her as a "heroic MP" on the BBC's Question Time programme on 4 May 2006. She has said that she believes William Hague will be the next Conservative Prime Minister rather than David Cameron [4]. In August 2009 she criticised the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 which conferred legal parenthood on a biological mother's female partner, saying "To have a birth certificate with two mothers and no father is just madness."[5] Smith is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Flag Group ^[1]

On Wednesday 17 September 2008, Geraldine Smith was interviewed by Tony Livesey on BBC Radio Lancashire's Breakfast Show, when she attacked the so-called "Lancashire Mafia" for their plot against Prime Minister Gordon Brown and accused those behind the scenes of being cowards.

[edit] Personal life

Geraldine Smith is the Patron of the Morecambe Bay National Osteoporosis Society Support Group.

Geraldine Smith is the President of 455 (Morecambe and Heysham) Squadron Air Training Corps a youth organisation sponsored by the Royal Air Force for local youth between the ages of 13 and 18 giving them opportunities to learn new skills and support their local community.

[edit] References

^ UK Parliament - Register of All Party Groups

[edit] External links

[edit] News items

[edit] Audio clips

Discussing Prescott in May 2006 on the Today programme

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Mark Lennox-Boyd	Member of Parliament for Morecambe and Lunesdale 1997–present	Incumbent

[0] UK Parliament - Register of All Party Groups

[1]

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