Colleen Fletcher

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Colleen Fletcher

| image = Official portrait of Colleen Fletcher crop 2.jpg

| office = Member of Parliament
for Coventry North East

| term_start = 7 May 2015

| term_end = 30 May 2024

| predecessor = Bob Ainsworth

| successor = Mary Creagh{{efn|As MP for Coventry East.}}

| birth_name = Colleen Margaret Dalton

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1954|11|23|df=y}}

| birth_place = Coventry, England

| party = Labour

| caption = Official portrait, 2017

| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}}

}}

Colleen Margaret Fletcher {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}} (née Dalton; born 23 November 1954) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North East from 2015 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she served as a Member of Coventry City Council prior to her election to Parliament.

Early life

Colleen Margaret Dalton was born on 23 November 1954 in Coventry, England to William Charles and Dot Dalton.{{cite book|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-283917|publisher=A & C Black|accessdate=4 November 2019|title=Fletcher, Colleen Margaret|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U283917|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4}} Her mother was a Labour councillor on Coventry City Council. She grew up in Coventry and attended Richard Lee Primary School, Lyng Hall School, and the further education college Henley College.{{cite news|last1=Reid|first1=Les|title=Colleen Fletcher selected as Labour candidate for Coventry North East|url=http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/colleen-fletcher-selected-labour-candidate-6406424|work=Coventry Telegraph|accessdate=3 January 2017|date=14 December 2013}}

Political career

Fletcher represented Wyken ward on Coventry City Council from 1992 to 2000 and between 2002 and 2004.{{cite web|url=https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/four-make-shortlist-fight-coventry-6315779|work=Coventry Telegraph|date=18 November 2013|accessdate=4 November 2019|last=Reid|first=Les|title=Four make shortlist to fight Coventry North-East for Labour}} In 2011, Fletcher was elected as a Labour Party councillor for the Upper Stoke ward on the same council.{{cite web|url=https://www.coventry.gov.uk/info/8/elections_and_voting/936/coventry_city_council_local_election_results_-_may_5_2011/14|title=Upper Stoke Ward - Labour hold|publisher=Coventry City Council|accessdate=4 November 2019}}

In December 2013, she was selected as the Labour candidate for Coventry North East. The seat had been represented by a Labour MP since its formation in 1974.{{cite web|url=http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/coventrynortheast/|title=Coventry North East|publisher=UK Polling Report|accessdate=4 November 2019|archive-date=5 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305023003/http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/coventrynortheast/|url-status=dead}} Fletcher was elected as MP with a majority of 11,775 (29.1%). She supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election,{{Cite web|url=https://labourlist.org/2016/07/which-mps-and-meps-have-nominated-owen-smith/|title=Full list of MPs and MEPs backing challenger Owen Smith|date=2016-07-21|website=LabourList|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-07-15}} and was re-elected at the 2017 general election.{{cite news |title=Coventry North East |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000649 |accessdate=4 November 2019 |publisher=BBC News}}

Fletcher served as an opposition whip from 2017 to 2024, under the leadership of Corbyn and later Keir Starmer.{{cite web |title=Colleen Fletcher MP |url=https://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/colleen-fletcher/4378 |accessdate=4 November 2019 |publisher=parliament.uk}} As an opposition whip, she served on the Administration Committee and numerous bill committees.

Fletcher supported the United Kingdom (UK) remaining within the European Union (EU) in the 2016 UK EU membership referendum. In the indicative votes in March 2019, she voted for a referendum on a Brexit withdrawal agreement, for the Norway-plus model, and for a customs union with the EU.{{cite news|url=https://ig.ft.com/brexit-exit-deal-vote/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902092554/https://ig.ft.com/brexit-exit-deal-vote/|archivedate=2 September 2019|date=29 March 2019|title=How MPs voted on May's withdrawal deal defeat|work=Financial Times}}

On 5 September 2022, she announced she would be standing down at the 2024 general election.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Ellie |date=2022-09-05 |title=Coventry MP to stand down at next general election |url=https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/local-news/coventry-mp-stand-down-next-24935863 |access-date=2022-11-03 |website=CoventryLive |language=en}}

Personal life

Fletcher was married to Ian Fletcher from 1972 until his death in 2018; the couple had two sons.{{cite web|url=https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventrys-first-female-mp-35-9382353|work=Coventry Telegraph|date=3 June 2015|accessdate=4 November 2019|title=Coventry's first female MP in 35 years speaks of juggling her new career with supporting her husband through his cancer battle|last=Gilbert|first=Simon}}{{cite web | url=https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-mps-heartbreak-death-husband-15061530.amp | title=Coventry MP's heartbreak at death of husband | date=22 August 2018 }}