Debbie Abrahams

Deborah Angela Elspeth Marie Abrahams (Morgan; born 15 September 1960) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham East and Saddleworth since 2011. Abrahams was a member of the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn from 2015 to 2018. She remains in the House of Commons as a backbencher.

Early life and career
Deborah Abrahams was born on 15 September 1960 in Sheffield; her father was a dentist. She was privately educated, going on to study biochemistry and physiology at the University of Salford. Her early employment was as a community worker for a charity in Wythenshawe in south Manchester, where she set up job training programmes for teenagers. She later studied for a master's degree at the University of Liverpool. Abrahams was head of healthy cities for Knowsley and served on the board of Bury and Rochdale Health Authority.

In 2002, Abrahams was appointed chair of Rochdale Primary Care Trust. She was Director of the International Health Impact Assessment Consortium at the University of Liverpool between 2006 and 2010.

Political career
She resigned from the Chair of Rochdale Primary Care Trust in 2007, over the use of private health companies in the National Health Service, which she said was "destroying the NHS". She then joined the Labour Party, declaring that she wanted "to challenge health policy at a local and national level to ensure that it reflects [the] core values" of the NHS. She was appointed by Simon Danczuk, then Labour candidate for Rochdale, as his advisor on health, and she stood for Rochdale Borough Council in Milnrow and Newhey ward in the 2008 local elections. She criticised the local council in Rochdale for failing to address health inequalities in the town.

Parliamentary career
At the 2010 general election, Abrahams stood as the Labour candidate in Colne Valley, coming third with 26.4% of the vote behind the Conservative candidate Jason McCartney and the Liberal Democrat candidate.

In December 2010, Abrahams was placed on a shortlist of three to be the Labour Party candidate for the 2011 Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. At the by-election, Abrahams was elected to Parliament as MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth with 42.1% of the vote and a majority of 3,558.

Abrahams was appointed parliamentary private secretary to Andy Burnham and elected Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party's Health Committee. In 2014, she organised an Inquiry Into The Effectiveness Of International Health Systems which she said demonstrated that "where there is competition, privatisation or marketisation in a health system, health equity worsens". She sought to reassure Clinical commissioning groups that the Labour Party's proposed health reforms would not amount to a top-down ‘big bang’ shake up of the NHS.

At the 2015 general election, Abrahams was re-elected as MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth with a decreased vote share of 39.4% and an increased majority of 6,002.

She was elected as a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee in July 2015. In September 2015, Abrahams was appointed Shadow Minister for Disabled People by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in recognition on her work with disabled people in the past. Abrahams was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in June 2016, following Owen Smith's resignation from the Shadow Cabinet in the wake of the EU Referendum result.

At the snap 2017 general election, Abrahams was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 54.5% and an increased majority of 8,182. Abrahams was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 43.5% and a decreased majority of 1,503.

In February 2021, Abrahams was one of three MPs who successfully took legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care over contracts awarded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abrahams was re-selected in April 2022 as the Labour candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth at the 2024 general election.

She is a member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.

2018 bullying claims
In March 2018, Abrahams was suspended from her position as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary whilst she was investigated by the Labour Party over a "workplace issue", reported by several media outlets to be related to claims that she bullied staff; she has vehemently denied the claims, adding that she is the victim of a "bullying culture of the worst kind". In May that year she was removed from the Shadow Cabinet. In a statement, Abrahams said: "I strongly refute the allegations of bullying made against me. I believe the investigation was not thorough, fair or independent." She said she would now go to the party's National Executive Committee disputes panel.

Awards
In January 2013, Abrahams was awarded the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in the Business Driver category, for her campaign to improve late payments affecting small businesses. She not only signed up to be a Champion of the Federation of Small Businesses Real-Life Entrepreneurs Campaign, but has been at the forefront of a campaign to improve the speed with which small businesses are paid by their customers.

Personal life
Abrahams married John Abrahams, a former captain of Lancashire County cricket team, in the late 1980s. They have two daughters, Victoria and Dawn.