COOPER, Yvette Rt Hon

Member for Pontefract and Castleford since 1997. Committees: Member, Education and Employment Select Committee 1997-99; Member, Intelligence and Security Committee; Member, All-Party Coalfield Communities Group. Political career: Chief Secretary to the Treasury since January 2008; Minister for Housing 2007-08; Minister for Housing and Planning 2005-07; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2003; Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellors Department 2002; Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State for Public Health 1999. Special political interests: Unemployment, energy (coal industry), child poverty. Profession/Trade: Economic Advisor to John Smith; Policy Advisor to Bill Clinton, Presidential Campaign; Policy Advisor to Labour Treasury Team on Public Spending; Economic Columnist and Leader Writer, The Independent. Education: Eggers Comprehensive; Balliol College, Oxford, BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics; Harvard University, Kennedy Scholar; London School of Economics, MSC Economics. Affiliations: GMB and T&G. Hobbies: Swimming, painting portraits, watching West Wing between Disney videos. b. 20 March 1969, Inverness. Married with three children.