Linda June Riordan[1] (née Haigh; 31 May 1953) is an English Labour Co-operative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Halifax from the 2005 general election until standing down in 2015.
[2][3] She served as a Calderdale councillor for eleven years,[2] representing the Ovenden ward from 1995 to 2006, when she stood down to devote herself full-time to her role as an MP.
[3] She was chosen as the Labour candidate from an all-women shortlist but her candidacy was at first opposed by the Party's ruling National Executive Committee owing to concerns about selection process.
She 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[6] In February 2015 she announced that she would be standing down at the general election in May, citing ill health.
[11] Riordan, along with other MPs, said that under new rules she was banned from receiving mortgage interest expenses by IPSA and, as a result, had been forced to let the property.