Labour parliamentary candidate Emma Foody says 'greatest privilege' to be picked to contest new Cramlington and Killingworth seat

From Wideopen, she was selected to contest the newly created seat in January ahead of a general election that most expect will take place this year. Current Blyth Valley MP Ian Levy will be her Conservative opponent.

Emma said: “I absolutely love where I come from and I have been involved in campaigns to improve the lives of working people for so many years, but ultimately where the real change comes from is Parliament and from being in government.

“I'm tired of getting small wins on campaigns and I want to see the real change that is going to make a real difference to people's lives.”

After growing up in North Tyneside and attending university, Emma started working for the North East Ambulance Service answering 999 calls.

She had been “politically aware growing up.” She said: “My mum used to run a youth club. My dad, when I was younger, worked for the NHS. I was engaged and aware of what was going on in the world.

“My mum worked at Northern Rock and was made redundant after the collapse. That obviously had a big impact on, not just me and the family, but on the broader community.”

However, it was her own work for the health service following the 2010 general election that led her to join the Labour Party.

She said: “A Conservative-led government came in and started announcing its plans for government, in particular its plans for the NHS, and I did not like them very much.”

Emma’s work in politics eventually took her away from the region. She met her husband Alex Norris, then a councillor and now the MP for Nottingham North, when living in the Midlands and they got married in 2017 in North Tyneside.

While in Nottingham, she was inspired to start volunteering for domestic violence charity Women’s Aid after a “bad experience with the police” when she became a victim of harassment.

She also decided to become a magistrate. Emma added: “That eventually led me to being deputy police and crime commissioner in Nottinghamshire, in particular with responsibility for victims and survivors.

“That was something that was obviously very personal to me, something I really enjoyed doing. I really enjoyed working with survivors and working with the police to ensure a better response.”

During the pandemic Emma started working for the Co-operative Party and moved back to the North East for family reasons, where she rekindled her links to the ambulance service by volunteering as a community first responder.

She said: “You are going to something and you do not know what is behind the door. You do not know what you are walking into.

“The reality is that you are there to help someone in potentially their hour of greatest need and being able to be there and be that support is an incredible privilege and responsibility, and something I love doing.”

Emma said it was “really exciting” to apply to be her local area’s Labour candidate. She said: “This is the place that I love, this is the place that I am from, and the opportunity to represent it is just the absolute greatest privilege.”