Rachael Maskell

Rachael Helen Maskell (born 5 July 1972) is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. She is the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of York Central after retaining the seat for her party at the 2015 general election.^[1] Campaigns Maskell is involved with include the Living Wage, skilled jobs, sustainability, affordable housing and integration of health and social care.^[2]

Education

Graduated from the University of East Anglia with a degree in physiotherapy in 1994.^[3]

Background

Maskell has been politically active since an early age. As a child, her uncle campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty, in addition to serving as an advisor to the Wilson government and as an academic. The Yorker, a York based publication styled after The New Yorker magazine, states: "[he] preferred to live and work amongst his community rather than be without. [H]is approach to politics was her inspiration as a child".^[4]

Career

Maskell worked as a care-worker and physiotherapist in the National Health Service for 20 years. Maskell has also been a trade-union official.^[5][6]

Maskell used her maiden speech to advocate for a new mental health hospital in York to replace the ageing Bootham Park.^[7] Speaking of the vision of "late member for Ebbw Vale" Aneurin Bevan, she said that "the growing social and financial inequalities manifest themselves in health inequality, and access to vital services is delayed and even denied as a direct result of the £3 billion structural reorganisation that the previous Government introduced."^[8]

On Wednesday 8 July 2015, Rachael Maskell was one of four Labour MPs elected to the Health Select Committee.^[9]

Maskell voted against the Welfare Bill in the House of Commons on 20 July 2015. Maskell made a statement saying "I have a duty to protect our vulnerable people. I could not stand by and let the most vicious Tory attacks on some of the poorest in our city go unchallenged."^[10]

In September 2015, during the European refugee crisis, Maskell called on the UK to open its doors to refugees; she said "we can all have a bit more compassion. If it was the other way round and we were in that desperate situation, we would expect somebody to show compassion to us."^[11][12] Speaking as 20,000 refugees arrived in Munich in one weekend,^[13] and as the German Government gets ready to receive 800,000 refugees in 2015;^[14] Maskell said that the UK Government must do more. She questioned David Cameron in the House of Commons asking "what criteria has the Prime Minister used to arrive at a figure of just six refugees per constituency per year?"^[15] She is quoted as saying "20,000 is not enough and 30,000 is not enough' and that "We will keep going until we hit our saturation point because what does it matter if we have to wait another week for a hospital visit?";^[16] in a statement on the crisis, she urged local authorities to help in every way they can and use every space they had to offer to aid people fleeing war in Syria and Northern Iraq,^[17] she said "we are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis that is getting worse, I am incensed that Turkey is hosting over one and a half million refugees and our government says we will open our borders to no more than six men, women and children a year in each constituency."^[18]

Maskell spoke in the Trade-Union Bill 2nd Reading debate on 14 September 2015. She referred the house to her Register of Interests as a member of Unite the Union declared "I am a proud trade-unionist" – she subsequently voted against the Bill.^[19]

Following a period working part of the Shadow Defence Team under Shadow Secretary of State for Defence Maria Eagle,^[20] Maskell was appointed Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary as part of the Labour Party's post-Brexit reshuffle.^[21]

Maskell's comments on Brexit in November 2016 referenced the pop culture news items "Marmitegate" and "the Toblerone Gap", and garnered some press attention, with The Daily Mail quoting in full: "Brexit is costing the wine industry £413 million more in imports. From Marmitegate to the Toblerone gap, we have seen rising prices. And it is getting worse! People are struggling now." The article constitutes a wry parody sketch, wherein Maskell is portrayed as a stern authority figure: "Comrade Maskell," the antagonist to Andrea Leadsom's depiction as: "like a Blue Peter presenter [shooting] a sparky little grin at the smouldering Maskell," by the traditionally anti-Labour periodical.^[22]

Personal life

Maskell is a keen cyclist and rode the trip to Labour Conference 2015 in Brighton from Parliament in aid of the British Heart Foundation.^[23]

References

External links

• Rachael Maskell at They Work For You website