Following her involvement in teaching unions, Begg joined the
Labour Party in 1983. She was selected to stand for Parliament, through an
all-women shortlist, as Labour candidate for
Aberdeen South. Begg was encouraged to stand by
Frank Doran, the former Labour MP for the constituency. At the
1997 general election, she defeated incumbent Conservative MP and government minister
Raymond Robertson. She became the second ever permanent wheelchair user in the House of Commons upon her election. She was re-elected in
2001,
2005 and
2010, becoming the first Labour MP to retain her constituency for more than a single term. At the
2015 general election, Begg lost her seat to
SNP candidate
Callum McCaig. Begg made her
maiden speech on 21 May 1997. She served as secretary of the
All-party parliamentary group (APPG) on the
BBC, and chair of the APPGs on Equalities, the Oil and Gas Industry, Chronic Pain, and Commercial Radio. She was a member of the Panel of Chairs and Vice Chair of the Speaker's Conference, Begg served as Chair of the
Work and Pensions Select Committee from June 2010 until the dissolution of Parliament in 2015.
Votes and political views Begg voted in favour of banning smoking in restaurants in April 2003. In December 2004 and October 2005, she voted in favour of the
Identity Cards Bill. She voted in favour of allowing unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples to adopt, and in favour of the
Civil Partnership Bill. In March 2002, she voted to ban the hunting of wild mammals with dogs. She voted in favour of the
NHS foundation trust proposal and against the
replacement of the Trident system. She voted in favour of adding clauses to a bill that allow the Secretary of State to detain indefinitely, pending deportation, anyone he suspects is a terrorist, even if the law forbids that person's deportation from ever taking place. She voted against allowing people detained at a police station to be fingerprinted and searched for identifying birthmarks unless it is in connection with a terrorism investigation. In March 2003, she voted against the declaration of war against
Iraq. In June 2003, she voted against a motion that would have recalled the Prime Minister's assertion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that could be used at 45 minutes' notice, and launching an independent inquiry into the intelligence received and the decisions that were based on it. In June 2007, she voted against a motion calling for an independent inquiry by a committee of
Privy Counsellors into the Iraq War. In November 2008, Begg was one of 18 MPs who signed a Commons motion backing a Team GB football team at the 2012 Olympics, saying football "should not be any different from other competing sports and our young talent should be allowed to show their skills on the world stage". The football governing bodies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all opposed to a Great Britain team, fearing it would stop them competing as individual nations in future tournaments. During the 2009 MPs expenses scandal, Begg was one of the first Scottish MPs to take the step of publishing all of her claims under the Additional Costs Allowance on her website before they were released by the House of Commons authorities saying that it was "important people can see how MPs spend taxpayers' money." In June 2011, Begg crossed swords with
Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, over the issue of disabled people being allowed to work for less than minimum wage if they so choose in order to establish themselves in employment. Davies explained that he was representing the views of constituents anxious to get a foothold on the earnings ladder, but Begg believed that this was simply an attempt to discriminate against disabled people.
National campaigns Begg is a vocal campaigner for allowing embryonic stem cells to be used in the research for treatments of diseases, including currently incurable conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease. She has also been heavily involved in lobbying the
Department of Health against an all-out ban on the pain-relief drug
co-proxamol, used by many people who live with chronic pain conditions. She has also taken the lead in lobbying the government on issues such as the Seafarer's Earnings Deduction and compensation for trawlermen who lost their livelihoods during the
Cod Wars. In the 2009 Budget, Begg also won a concession from the
Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Alistair Darling MP, that "those caring responsibilities of grandparents of working age will count towards their entitlement to the basic state pension." Begg had campaigned for grandparents of working age to receive National Insurance Credits in recognition of the fact that their caring role may impact on their contributions to their state pension entitlement. In the Commons, Begg criticised fraudsters who take advantage of vulnerable people through mail scams and
pyramid schemes.
Local campaigns Begg was critical of
Aberdeen City Council's budget cuts in 2008, and dubbed their behaviour as "draconian" after the council set a debt collection agency on an 80-year-old partially sighted woman for £17.50. Begg wrote to the Scottish First Minister
Alex Salmond requesting a change to the house buying system in
Scotland. She also criticised plans to close an Aberdeen school 18 months after it had been saved, saying that they were "closing the school by stealth." ==Personal life and honours==