Julie Cooper (politician)
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Julie Cooper MP |
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Member of Parliament for Burnley |
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Assumed office 8 May 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Gordon Birtwistle |
| Majority | 3,244 (8.2%) |
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| Born |
20 June 1960 Burnley, England |
| Political party | Labour |
Julie Elizabeth Cooper (born 20 June 1960) is a British Labour Party politician, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Burnley. She was elected at the 2015 general election, defeating the sitting Liberal Democrat MP Gordon Birtwistle with a 6.3% swing.
An English teacher by profession, Cooper taught at secondary level before running a Burnley-based pharmacy business with her husband. She was first elected as a Labour councillor for Burnley Borough Council's Bank Hall ward in May 2005, and later became leader of the Labour group. She was selected as Labour's candidate to contest the 2010 general election in December 2009, after the sitting Labour MP, Kitty Ussher decided to stand down at the election. The selection of Ussher's successor caused some controversy when Labour's National Executive Committee ruled that the constituency should adopt an all-female shortlist, a decision it subsequently overturned following accusations of unfairness.
Cooper contested the general election in May 2010, but was defeated by the Liberal Democrat candidate, Gordon Birtwistle. Burnley, which had returned a Labour candidate at every election since 1935, was one of three constituencies in East Lancashire to be lost by the party in 2010, something that local activists blamed on the unpopularity of the government of Gordon Brown. The loss of emergency hospital services in the town, which were moved to nearby Blackburn, had also become a contentious issue, and Birtwistle had campaigned on a platform to bring them back. However, in the May 2012 local elections Labour regained control of the council with Cooper becoming council leader.
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