Miriam Cates

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Miriam Cates
Official portrait of Miriam Cates MP crop 2.jpg
Official portrait, 2019
Member of Parliament
for Penistone and Stocksbridge
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byAngela Smith
Majority7,210 (14.6%)
Personal details
Born (1982-08-23) 23 August 1982 (age 39)
Sheffield, England
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Children3
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
WebsiteOfficial website

Miriam Joy Cates[1] (born 23 August 1982)[2] is a British Conservative Party politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Penistone and Stocksbridge at the 2019 general election. Prior to her parliamentary career, she was the finance director of a technology consultancy, teacher, and a parish councillor.

Early life[]

Cates was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, and attended King Edward VII School.[3][4] She studied genetics at the University of Cambridge,[5] obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from Sheffield Hallam University, and worked as a science teacher in a school in Sheffield. She then became the finance director of the technology consultancy, Redemption Media.[4] Cates co-owns the company with her husband.[6]

Political career[]

Local councillor[]

Cates was elected in 2015 as a parish councillor for Oughtibridge Ward on Bradfield Parish Council.[7] She was re-elected in 2019.[8] Cates stood as a Conservative candidate for Stannington ward in the 2018 Sheffield City Council election and joined the party in the same year.[9] She received 898 votes and finished third behind the Liberal Democrats candidates.[10]

Member of Parliament[]

Cates was selected as the Conservative candidate for Penistone and Stocksbridge on 24 October 2018.[11] She had previously supported continued membership of the European Union in the 2016 referendum but, during the election campaign, commented she had since changed her mind and supported Brexit.[3] Cates was elected as MP in the 2019 general election with a majority of 7,210 (14.5%) on a swing of 8.6% from Labour to the Conservatives.[12]

After her election, it was reported that a mobile app was launched in 2014 by Redemption Media, a company co-owned by Cates and her husband, charged foodbanks for the services that it provided.[13] Cates commented on this by stating that the app had been developed for free, and that the first foodbank to use it had not been charged. After the app was expanded to other foodbanks, there was a set-up charge which was used to help cover development and training costs, and that by joining the app they also received a complimentary subscription to JustGiving.[14] The first client of the app was the S6 Foodbank based at St. Thomas' Church and run by Network Church Sheffield.[15] They piloted the app in 2012 before its national launch in 2014.[16] Cates and her family are members of St. Thomas' Church and she was the operations director of Network Church Sheffield from 2016 to 2018.[17][18]

In June 2021, in an article for online magazine UnHerd, Cates criticised the focus on protecting the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic as in her opinion it only had a short-term impact on the "longevity of older people" and that emphasis should have been on "the long term impact of lockdowns on young peoples' lives".[19]

In October 2021, she wrote an article in The Daily Telegraph where Cates stated that biological sex was unchangeable and that it eroded the rights of women to say that trans women were women.[20] When asked about the article in an interview for GB News, she clarified that she did not oppose trans women who had undergone sex reassignment therapy from having equivalent rights but did oppose self-identification and gender fluidity as she felt that it posed a danger to women.[21] In November 2021, during a parliamentary session, Cates warned schools against inviting charities Stonewall and Mermaids to provide counselling services as she felt that they taught "dangerous and contested extreme ideologies that don't have a basis in science".[22]

Cates has been a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee since March 2020 and the Education Select Committee since October 2021.[23] She also co-chairs the Stocksbridge Towns Fund with local property developer Mark Dransfield.[24]

Personal life[]

Cates lives in Oughtibridge,[25] a village near Stocksbridge with her husband and three children.[11] She is an evangelical Christian and met her husband while working on a voluntary project at their church in Sheffield.[17][26][27] Her husband Dave is the managing director of software company Redemption Media and is the chair of the trust board overseeing the Peak Edge Academy Trust.[28]

References[]

  1. ^ "Members Sworn". parliament.uk. 18 December 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  2. ^ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. p. 298. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  3. ^ a b Burn, Chris (28 November 2019). "Conservatives on course for first South Yorkshire victory since 1992 in wake of 'chicken run' MP". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  4. ^ a b Bond, Daniel (16 December 2019). "Class of 2019: Meet the new MPs". Politics Home.
  5. ^ Cates, Miriam. "About". Miriam Cates. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  6. ^ "MP responds to Foodbank app claims". Look Local. 2 January 2020.
  7. ^ "Parish Councillor elected as MP". Bradfield Parish Council. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  8. ^ "Local Parish Election Results". Sheffield City Council. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  9. ^ The Real Me with Gloria De Piero and Miriam Cates. GB News. 25 October 2021. Event occurs at 00:40. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  10. ^ "Sheffield City Council Results" (PDF). Sheffield City Council. p. 24. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
  11. ^ a b Hill, Henry (25 October 2018). "Miriam Cates selected for Penistone & Stocksbridge". ConservativeHome.
  12. ^ "Penistone & Stocksbridge". BBC News. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  13. ^ Wyatt, Tim (14 December 2019). "Foodbank app run by newly elected Tory MP charges charities to use it". The Independent. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  14. ^ Scott, Geraldine (16 December 2019). "New Yorkshire Tory MP hits back at claims she profits from foodbanks". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  15. ^ "Sheffield S6 Foodbank". Sheffield S6 Foodbank. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  16. ^ Cates, Dave (29 July 2014). "How can you help your local foodbank? There's an app for that". JustGiving. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  17. ^ a b Following God into the neighbourhood. Network Church Sheffield. 25 February 2018. Event occurs at 01:10. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  18. ^ "Miriam Joy Cates". gov.uk. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  19. ^ Ashton, Lucy (18 June 2021). "Anger over Sheffield MP's 'offensive and insensitive' Covid and the elderly comment". Yorkshire Live. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  20. ^ "Conservative MP argues women 'are being cancelled' over trans debate". politics.co.uk. 11 October 2021.
  21. ^ The Real Me with Gloria De Piero and Miriam Cates. GB News. 25 October 2021. Event occurs at 14:45. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  22. ^ "MP condemns LGBT charities teaching 'dangerous and extreme ideologies' in schools". LBC. 9 November 2021.
  23. ^ "Parliamentary career for Miriam Cates". UK Parliament. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  24. ^ Walker, Peter; Duncan, Pamela; McIntyre, Niamh (16 July 2021). "Labour concerned over management of flagship levelling up scheme". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  25. ^ "Miriam Cates MP". Miriam Cates. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  26. ^ "Miriam Cates MP: we're obsessed with what we can measure". UnHerd. 2 February 2021. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  27. ^ The Real Me with Gloria De Piero and Miriam Cates. GB News. 25 October 2021. Event occurs at 03:45. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  28. ^ "Trustees". Peak Edge Academy Trust. Retrieved 15 November 2021.

External links[]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Penistone and Stocksbridge

2019–present
Incumbent
Retrieved from ""