Mary Kelly Foy

Mary Foy grew up on a council estate in Jarrow and has lived in the North East her whole life. Foy has been consistently active in local politics, being first elected to the Gateshead council in 2006 where, three years later, she was elected cabinet member with the health and wellbeing portfolio. Foy also has extensive experience of local education services, as a governor of two schools in Birtley. Backed by unions, Foy is a member of Unite and Unison, and has served as regional representative on the Labour Party National Policy Forum. Foy is also a member of the Labour Socialist Campaign Group and a passionate campaigner for increased funding for the NHS: her maiden speech described how her daughter was born with cerebral palsy, and died in 2015, due to a lack of hospital ventilators. In 2020, she resigned from her role as PPS to Andy McDonald in order to vote against the proposed Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Charges) Bill. With Northern Irish heritage, she has been on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee since 2020 and was appointed co-chair of the APPG on cerebral palsy that same year.