Theresa Griffin was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, the fourth child of Irish immigrant parents where her father was a machinist in the British Leyland car factory and her mother was a teaching assistant. Griffin attended Bishop Ullathorne Comprehensive school and achieved a first class B.A. and an M.A. from Lancaster University.
Political career
Theresa Griffin has been a member of the Labour Party member since 1988. She was a member of Unite’s North West Political Committee and represented North West CLPs on the National Policy Forum. Griffin has also been a Regional Organiser for the public services union, UNISON and, spanning from an early career in community theatre, she was Director of Communications and Research at North West Arts. She was a local government councillor for the City Council in Liverpool in the 1990s. As a Liverpool City Councillor, she was the lead member for Economic Development and Europe and was instrumental in bringing Objective One status and billions of pounds of investment to the Liverpool City Region.
Tyre Safety: Griffin is working closely with Steve Rotheram MP on improving tyre safety across the European Union. This follows from the death of three people, from the North West of England, in a coach crash on the way back from Bestival in 2012, due to the blow out of a 19.5 year old tyre.
Workers' Rights: Griffin is supporting the Cammell Laird strikers fight for justice in the European Parliament, believing the strikers to be the victims of a gross miscarriage of justice. Griffin is also a strong advocate of Fair Pay Fortnight which campaigns for higher wages for workers.
Regional EU Funding: Griffin is working to ensure that the UK Government is correctly allocating EU funding to the North West region.
Issues Across Europe
Carbon Capture and Storage : Griffin is a supporter of CCS technology as part of a suite of solutions to combat climate change, provide a more sustainable solution to heavy industry and enhance energy security.
Market Stability Reserve for the EU Emissions Trading System : Griffin is a strong advocate of a MSR for the EU ETS. In January 2015 Griffin led a progressive coalition to secure a 'historic rejection' of right-wing proposals to 'weaken' the ETS. Griffin affirmed that the final report would have been "highly regressive and would have had an extremely negative impact on the ETS without benefiting industry in the long run.".
Energy Policy Advice: Griffin has written several articles on energy policy detailing the importance of the coordination of national energy policies in order to achieve EU-wide energy efficiency and security In March 2015, Griffin contributed to the tenth report of the UK Parliament's Energy and Climate Change Committee outlining future UK energy and climate change policy challenges, with particular focus on fuel poverty.
Campaigns
Griffin is an active campaigner on issues relating to employment rights, women's rights, children's rights, disabled persons' rights, LGBTI rights, xenophobia and health. Griffin has a particular interest in campaigning for more EU funding in global health research to aid the eradication of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria.
Membership of Committees, Delegations and Intergroups
