Katy Clark

She stood as a Labour candidate on the London list in the 2019 European Parliament Elections, but was not elected.

The Democracy Review reported in September 2018, and rule changes to increase party democracy were adopted. Clark has suggested that she would like these reforms to go further and that some of her proposed reforms were watered down.

In 2017 Jeremy Corbyn tasked Clark with leading a review into the democratic functioning of the Labour Party at every level including Labour Leadership Elections, the makeup of the National Executive Committee, giving Labour members greater say in party policy, building Constituency Labour Parties, local and regional Government and improving the situation of women, LGBT+, BAME, disabled and young members.

Clark was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.

Clark was an early supporter of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign, a key strategist on Jeremy Corbyn's 2015 leadership campaign and appointed as his Political Secretary in November 2015, following his election as leader.

Clark stood as a left candidate to be Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2014 arguing for a change in direction. She lost her Commons seat of North Ayrshire and Arran at the May 2015 general election to the SNP candidate Patricia Gibson.

In February 2013, Clark was among those who gave their support to the People's Assembly Against Austerity in a letter published by The Guardian newspaper, and was Co-Chair of the Labour Assembly Against Austerity.

Throughout her time an MP Clark consistently voted in favour of increased rights for LGBT+ people, including voting in favour of same-sex marriage in 2013.

"We want our members to be at the heart of our party – to have more power – over policy, how we campaign, organise and run our party, just as we want the people of Britain to be at the heart of deciding how our communities, economy and society are organised. That is what the democracy review is about.

Clark campaigned on human rights issues and was one of 95 Labour MPs who opposed replacing Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system. She supported a 'No' vote in the 2011 AV Referendum.

In 2010 Clark was one of only 7 MPs to vote for Diane Abbott in the 2010 Labour Leadership Election.

She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the new seat of North Ayrshire and Arran, based substantially on the former seat of Cunninghame North whose MP Brian Wilson had retired, and the towns of Stevenston and Kilwinning from the old Cunninghame South. She had a majority of 11,296, and made her maiden speech on 7 June 2005. She was nominated for House Magazine's 'Maiden Speech of the Year'. Following the election, The Guardian named her as one of eight new MPs "to watch".

One of the few left-wing members of Labour's 2005 intake of MPs, she was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and the Scottish Labour Party Campaign for Socialism. of the twenty-four members of the Campaign Group, she was the only one under the age of 50.

Clark lives in Vauxhall, having moved to London in 1998, and has one daughter.

Clark unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of Galloway and Upper Nithsdale at the 1997 general election, a traditional Conservative and Scottish National Party (SNP) marginal. She finished in third place behind the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Ian Lang who lost his seat to the SNP's Alasdair Morgan.

She was a solicitor in Edinburgh and Musselburgh from 1991–98, a legal officer then Head of Membership Legal Services with UNISON in London from 1998-2005 where she undertook employment litigation including Europe's biggest equal pay case, where she won £35m in back pay for female nurses and other medical staff who had been unlawfully underpaid compared with their male colleagues.

Clark was born in Kilwinning went to Ayr Grammar Primary School then Kyle Academy, both in Ayr, before attending the University of Aberdeen, receiving an LLB in 1990. She received a Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Edinburgh in 1991. She qualified as a solicitor in England, Scotland and Wales.

Kathryn Sloan Clark (born 3 July 1967) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Ayrshire and Arran from the 2005 to the 2015 general election when she lost her seat to Patricia Gibson, the SNP candidate.

She joined the Labour Party at the age of seventeen and is a member of the Unite and UNISON. Her great-great grandfather Alexander Sloan, was Labour MP for South Ayrshire from 1939 until his death in 1946.