Miriam Cates

Cates was elected in 2015 as a parish councillor for Oughtibridge Ward on Bradfield Parish Council.[11] She was re-elected in 2019 and resigned her seat in 2021.[12][13] Cates stood as a Conservative candidate for Stannington ward in the 2018 Sheffield City Council election and joined the party in the same year.[14] She received 898 votes and finished third behind the Liberal Democrats candidates.[15]

Cates was selected as the Conservative candidate for Penistone and Stocksbridge on 24 October 2018.[16] She had previously supported the UK remaining a member of the European Union in the 2016 referendum but, during the election campaign, commented she had since changed her mind and supported Brexit.[3] Cates was elected as MP in the 2019 general election with a majority of 7,210 (14.5%) on a swing of 8.6% from Labour to the Conservatives.[17]

After her election, it was reported that a mobile app launched in 2014 by Redemption Media, a company co-owned by Cates and her husband, charged foodbanks for the services that it provided.[18] Cates commented on this by stating that the app had been developed for free, and that the first foodbank to use it had not been charged. After the app was expanded to other foodbanks, there was a set-up charge which was used to help cover development and training costs, and that by joining the app they also received a complimentary subscription to JustGiving.[19] The first client of the app was the S6 Foodbank based at St. Thomas' Church and run by Network Church Sheffield.[20] They piloted the app in 2012 before its national launch in 2014.[21][22] Cates and her family were members of St. Thomas' Church and she was the operations director of Network Church Sheffield from 2016 to 2018.[23][24]

Cates has been a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee since March 2020 and the Education Select Committee since October 2021.[25] She also co-chairs the Stocksbridge Towns Fund with local property developer Mark Dransfield.[26] She was elected to the 1922 Committee on 11 July 2022.[27]

Cates established the New Social Covenant Unit with fellow Conservative MP Danny Kruger in 2021 with the principal purpose of promoting policy that would "strengthen families, communities, and the nation".[28]

In June 2021, in an article for online magazine UnHerd, Cates criticised the focus on protecting the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic as in her opinion it only had a short-term impact on the "longevity of older people" and that emphasis should have been on "the long term impact of lockdowns on young peoples' lives".[29]

In October 2021, she wrote an article in The Daily Telegraph stating "If we erode the very concept of women – for example by saying that trans women are women, or by denying the importance of biological sex – we erase the rights of women."[30] When asked about the article in an interview for GB News, she said that she did not oppose trans women who had undergone sex reassignment therapy from having equivalent rights, but did oppose self-identification and the concept of gender fluidity as she claimed that these "posed a danger" to women.[31] In November 2021, during a parliamentary session, Cates warned schools against inviting leading LGBTQ rights charities Stonewall and Mermaids to provide counselling services as she claimed that they taught "dangerous and contested extreme ideologies that don't have a basis in science".[32]

Cates supported Suella Braverman in the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.[33] Liz Truss won the leadership contest and became Prime Minister, but resigned in October 2022. Cates endorsed Rishi Sunak in the subsequent October 2022 Conservative leadership election.[34]

In May 2023, at the National Conservatism Conference, Cates commented that she felt that Western society was threatened by Cultural Marxism and falling birthrates. Cates stated in an interview in June 2023 that she misuses the former term as a catch-all pseudonym for "bad liberal ideology".[7][35] In August 2023, Cates called for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights as she felt that it was a threat to democracy.[36]

In October 2023, at a fringe event of the Conservative Party Conference, Cates stated without evidence her belief that internet pornography was a factor in people becoming transgender, commenting "This is anecdotal, but you see an awful lot of trans women, so men, saying it was trans porn that led them into the trans arena".[37] In the same month, she urged fellow Conservative MPs to sign a letter to voice opposition to a bill aiming to ban conversion therapy.[38]