Arlene McCarthy OBE (born 10 October 1960, Belfast, Northern Ireland) was a Member of the European Parliament for North West England for the Labour Party from 1994 to 2014.

Career before politics

McCarthy graduated from South Bank Polytechnic (now London South Bank University) in 1983 with BA (Hons) proceeding to attend the Free University of Berlin and then later attending the University of Manchester to conduct PhD studies.

After completing studies McCarthy was employed as a lecturer in International Politics and Regional Studies at the Free University of Berlin, and was also employed at the European Parliament working for the Socialist Group.

Upon returning to Britain McCarthy worked as the Principal European Liaison Officer at Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council, until her election to the European Parliament.

European Parliament

First elected in 1994, McCarthy was re-elected in 1999 to represent the newly formed North West England constituency. Having represented the same constituency since, she was top of the list of candidates from the Labour Party at the 2009 European elections.

McCarthy held a number of positions within Parliament, being a member of the Party of European Socialists, she sat in the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group. McCarthy was Chair of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and since 2009 served as the vice-chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

In January 2014 McCarthy announced she would not be seeking re-election in the June 2014 European Parliament Election.

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours.^[1][2]