Kerry McCarthy

The first vegan MP, Kerry McCarthy is a trailblazing advocate for animal rights, public health and environmental sustainability. McCarthy has been active within Labour since the early 1990s, after becoming chair and secretary of her local constituency party, among other roles. Known in the 2000s as a “Brownite”, McCarthy repeatedly criticised the suitability of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. McCarthy has been on the environmental audit committee and the committee for environment, food and rural affairs committee. McCarthy has also served in a number of shadow ministerial roles, including shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, shadow agriculture minister, shadow Foreign Office minister and shadow Treasury minister. Drawing from her past work with international clients seeking cross border transactions as a solicitor, McCarthy serves as secretary of the APPG on Somaliland and lead contact for the End Child Poverty campaign amongst Labour MPs. A member of the APPG on veganism and vegetarianism, and vice-president of the League Against Cruel Sports, McCarthy has also introduced a Bill aimed at recognising animals as sentient beings. In 2018, she was awarded the Cruelty Free International’s parliamentarian of the month award for campaigning to end animal experimentation.