Kitty was elected to represent Burnley at the 2005 General Election taking over from Peter Pike who had represented Burnley for 22 years. In Burnley, she lives with her husband Pete just off Manchester Road; their children were born in Burnley General Hospital.

In June 2009 Kitty announced that will be standing down from parliament at the next general election, in order to be able to see her young family in the evenings. But she isn't giving up politics or community campaigning.

Kitty has run numerous high profile campaigns on behalf of her constituents, most notably in support of Burnley General Hospital, where she collected 10,000 names on a petition, organised a rally in Burnley centre, and arranged for her constituents to put their case to the then Secretary of State for Health. Click here for more details.

Kitty is proud to have served in the government as Economic Secretary to the Treasury (July 07-October 08) and then as a Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions (October 08-June09). In June 2009 she briefly returned to the Treasury as Exchequer Secretary before resigning to prevent political embarassment to the government over her tax position. She has always maintained doing nothing wrong.

Before becoming a minister, Kitty worked as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Hodge, Ministry of State for Industry and Regions (2006-07) and from 2005 - 2006 she was a member of the Public Accounts COmmittee.

An economist by training, Kitty previously worked as political adviser to Patricia Hewitt at the Department for Trade and Industry and was also the chief economist on the cross-party pro-European campaign group Britain in Europe. As a local councillor in Lambeth from 1998-2002 she chaired the finance and environment scrutiny committees.

Kitty is also a proud member of Unite (Amicus section) trade union. In her spare time she enjoys hill walking and spending time with her family. She is also a season ticket holder at Burnley Football Club.

 

 
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