Maria Eagle

Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Garston, previously Garston and Halewood, since 1997. She served as a junior minister in the governments of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Keir Starmer. The twin sister of Angela Eagle, also a Labour MP, Eagle was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire to a working-class family and raised in Merseyside. She studied Philosophy, politics and economics at Pembroke College, Oxford and Law at the College of Law, London. After graduating with her law degree, she worked as an articled clerk and solicitor in both London and Liverpool. After unsuccessfully contesting Crosby in 1992, she was elected as MP for Liverpool Garston at the 1997 general election. Under Tony Blair, Eagle was a junior minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education and Skills and Northern Ireland Office. She was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice and Government Equalities Office under Gordon Brown. Following the 2010 general election, Eagle became Shadow Solicitor General for England and Wales. She served in the Shadow cabinet as Shadow Transport Secretary, Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, Shadow Defence Secretary and finally Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary. She resigned from the Corbyn shadow cabinet in June 2016. She returned to the frontbench under Starmer in 2023, and following Labour's victory at the 2024 general election she returned to government as Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry. She returned to the backbenches in the 2025 cabinet reshuffle.