Angela Eagle was elected to the Party’s National Women’s Conference in 1989 and chaired the National Conference of Labour Women in 1991.

Her first Government role was in the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions where she was appointed as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State following the 1997 general election.

Angela served as a member of the Treasury Select Committee for five years where she used her background in economics to investigate such things as the role and activities of Private Equity groups. Angela was also elected as Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party during this period. She was also elected to represent backbench Labour MPs on the Party’s ruling National Executive Committee. In June 2007 she became Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, a new position created in HM Treasury. Here Angela has a wide range of responsibilities including competition and better regulation, excise duties and gambling, climate change issues such as carbon trading and taxation of transport and responsibility for the Royal Mint.

Angela has an identical twin sister Maria, who, having been elected as Member of Parliament for Liverpool Garston in 1997 gave Angela and Maria the unique status of being the first twins elected as MPs.

She was the joint winner of the British Under-18s chess championship in 1976