Helen Goodman
Helen Catherine Goodman (born 2 January 1958) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishop Auckland since 2005, and was the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for in the Department for Work and Pensions until 2010 with responsibility for child poverty and childcare.
Political career
Goodman was selected as the Labour candidate for the County Durham seat of Bishop Auckland at the 2005 General Election through an All-Women Shortlist following the retirement of the veteran Labour MP Derek Foster. Goodman held the seat with a majority of 10,047 and remains the MP there today. She made her maiden speech on 25 May 2005. She was re-elected in 2010.
Goodman was a member of the Public Accounts Committee from May 2005 to April 2007 before becoming a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Ministry of Justice. In June 2007 she was appointed Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, before being made a whip in October 2008. She left this role in June 2009 to become a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions. In this role she steered the Child Poverty Act onto the statute book, alongside Stephen Timms. In October 2010, Goodman became Shadow Minister for Media. In this role she has campaigned for better child protection online. In October 2013 she was also given responsibility for Labour's Arts policy.
She is a member of the GMB, Amnesty International and the Christian Socialist Movement. She has also been Chair of Camden Co-operative Party and a school governor. Her main political interests include the environment, children’s issues and international development.
Education
Goodman was educated at her village school and the comprehensive Lady Manners School, in Bakewell, Derbyshire. She studied Philosophy Politics and Economics at Somerville College, Oxford.
