Paula Barker was employed in local government for almost 30 years – ever since she left school. After leaving school she joined Liverpool City Council on a Youth Training Scheme in the Human Resources Department. Soon after, she moved to a permanent position in the Building Maintenance & Repairs Department. On day one of her employment she went and found the union rep and joined NALGO. Within the first year of work she was balloted for industrial action and joined colleagues on the picket line. She eventually moved from Liverpool City Council for a promotion at neighbouring Knowsley Council to work in Customer Services where she spent around four years. In around 2001 she joined Halton Borough Council where she progressively became more active in her trade union, UNISON. She held a variety of roles in her local branch before becoming Branch Secretary and then for the last 5 years prior to her election to Parliament she was the North West Regional Convenor for UNISON, the most senior lay official for the union. In this role she constantly has championed workers rights for the 200,000 plus members she represented For the three years prior to her election victory she was also a member of the North West TUC Executive Committee.
Political career
Paula Barker voted for Jeremy Corbyn in both his leadership campaigns. She was the first major trade union official to publicly back Jeremy Corbyn's original leadership campaign in 2015. Her candidacy to be Labour candidate for Liverpool Wavertree was backed by all the major trade unions, including Unite and Unison. She was elected in the 2019 general election, winning 31,310 votes. This represented 72.2% of the vote. She is a member of Labour's Socialist Campaign Group. Paula Barker made her maiden speech on 4 February 2020 becoming one of the first of the new MPs from the 2019 general election to do so. In it she paid tribute to her predecessor and outlined the rich diversity of the Liverpool Wavertree constituency whilst also pointing out to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government that it is local representatives who know what is best for their constituencies. Her maiden speech was followed up on 25 February when she spoke in the Social Care debate and called upon the Government to enact meaningful market reform of the landscape of fragmented providers, and to develop an effective workforce strategy so that staff are fairly rewarded and properly valued. On 12 March, Paula Barker sponsored the Private Members Bill put forward by Mike Amesbury MP on proposed changes to the law regarding school uniforms. called on all members of all political parties to come together to make the change in the law to support parents and carers struggling to cope with the increasing costs of school uniforms; an issue affecting the 1 in 3 children living in poverty in Liverpool, Wavertree. She is a member of the Justice Select Committee on behalf of the Labour Party.
