Jump to content

Teresa Pearce

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the British politician. For the American politician of a similar name, seeTeresa Pierce.

Teresa Pearce
Official portrait, 2017
Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
In office
7 October 2016 – 14 June 2017
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byGrahame Morris
Succeeded byAndrew Gwynne
Member of Parliament
forErith and Thamesmead
In office
6 May 2010 – 6 November 2019
Preceded byJohn Austin
Succeeded byAbena Oppong-Asare
Personal details
Born(1955-02-01)1 February 1955(age 69)
Southport,Lancashire,England
Political partyLabour
SpousePaul O'Neill
WebsiteOfficial website

Teresa Pearce(born 1 February 1955)[1]is a BritishLabour Partypoliticianwho was theMember of Parliament(MP) forErith and Thamesmeadfrom2010to2019,[2]who was appointed as a Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning in September 2015.[3]In the reshuffle of October 2016, Pearce was appointed as actingShadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government,standing down after the2017 general electionto concentrate on her constituency.[4]

Early life[edit]

Teresa Pearce was born inSouthport,Lancashire,[5]but was educated at theSt Thomas More SchoolinEltham,London.For ten years prior to her election, she was a senior manager withPricewaterhouseCoopers.She is a formerBexleycouncillor.[6]

Parliamentary career[edit]

Pearce was elected to theHouse of CommonsasMember of ParliamentforErith and Thamesmeadin the2010 general electionwith a majority of 5,703.[7]In her maiden speech she stated her pride in theLabour Party's track record onSure Start,thefuture jobs fundand thenational minimum wage.[8]

In2015,she was re-elected with an increased majority of 9,525, gaining just under 50% of the vote.[9]

In Parliament, Pearce served on a number of Select Committees between 2010 and 2015, sitting on both theWork and Pensions Select Committee(2010–2015) and theTreasury Select Committee(2011–2015).[10]Pearce also shortly served on thePublic Accounts Committee(2015) before she was appointed to serve as Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning in September 2015.[3]She was appointed as the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in the October 2016 reshuffle, but it was announced she intends to stand down from the post after theMay 2017 local elections.[4][11]

She supportedOwen Smithin the failed attempt to replaceJeremy Corbynin the2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election.[12]

Pearce was re-elected in thegeneral election 2017,with an increased majority of 10,014, gaining over 57% of the vote.[13]

In July 2019, Pearce announced that she would stand down at thenext general election.[14]

Personal life[edit]

Pearce has two adult daughters and two step children[15]She had her first daughter when she was 18 and said she knows from experience what it is like to be "written off" as a teenage mother.[15]She has 6 grandchildren.

She now lives in Canterbury and retrained in 2021 as a Humanist celebrant.

References[edit]

  1. ^"Teresa Pearce MP".BBC Democracy Live.BBC.Retrieved25 July2010.
  2. ^"No. 59418".The London Gazette.13 May 2010. p. 8735.
  3. ^abChakelian, Anoosh (18 September 2015)."Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet: the full list of ministers".New Statesman.Retrieved7 October2016.
  4. ^abStaff writer (7 October 2016)."Shadow Cabinet line-up in full".LabourList.Retrieved8 October2016.
  5. ^Staff writer."Teresa Pearce (Labour Party) – PPC for Erith and Thamesmead".YourNextMP. Archived fromthe originalon 26 April 2010.Retrieved11 October2013.
  6. ^Kite, Melissa (18 April 2009)."Labour ballot box tampering row deepens".Daily Telegraph.Archived fromthe originalon 21 April 2009.Retrieved11 May2010.
  7. ^Staff writer (7 May 2010)."Erith & Thamesmead".BBC News.Retrieved11 May2010.
  8. ^Teresa Pearce,Member of ParliamentforErith and Thamesmead(10 June 2010)."Tackling Poverty in the UK".Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).Vol. 511. United Kingdom:House of Commons.col. 531–534.
  9. ^Staff writer (8 May 2015)."Election 2015: Erith & Thamesmead parliamentary constituency".BBC News.Archived fromthe originalon 8 May 2015.Retrieved11 October2015.
  10. ^"Teresa Pearce MP".parliament.uk.UK Parliament.Retrieved11 October2015.
  11. ^Asthana, Anushka(2 April 2017)."Teresa Pearce to step down as shadow communities secretary".The Guardian.Retrieved2 April2017.
  12. ^"Full list of MPs and MEPs backing challenger Owen Smith".LabourList.21 July 2016.Retrieved15 July2019.
  13. ^Staff writer (9 June 2017)."Election 2015: Erith & Thamesmead parliamentary constituency".BBC News.Archived fromthe originalon 17 August 2017.Retrieved17 August2017.
  14. ^Bull, Tom (12 July 2019)."Teresa Pearce MP won't stand at next election".Bexley Times.Retrieved16 October2019.
  15. ^abMoorhead, Joanna (10 January 2015)."We're glad we chose to be mothers in our teens".The Guardian.Retrieved29 March2015.

External links[edit]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
forErith and Thamesmead
2010–2019 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
2016–2017 		Succeeded by
Shadow Minister for the Constitutional Convention
2016–2017
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Teresa_Pearce&oldid=1235123896"