Marie Tidball

Marie Tidball was born with a congenital disability which affects all four limbs, with foreshortened arms and legs and a digit on each underdeveloped hand. As a child she missed three years of school because of the surgery needed. She grew up in Penistone and Stocksbridge, and was educated at Penistone Grammar School, by then a non-selective state school. Her mother was a nursery head and her father was a teacher and Labour county councillor, who helped found Barnsley College. ==Education and early career==

Tidball studied law at Wadham College, Oxford, followed by a journalism internship at Channel 4 News. She was a founding director and coordinator of the Oxford University disability law and policy project. She was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 2017: her doctoral thesis was titled "The governance of adult defendants with autism through English criminal justice policy and criminal court practice" and her doctoral supervisor was Carolyn Hoyle. ==Oxford councillor==

Tidball has been called one of the country's leading disability rights campaigners by the Barnsley Chronicle. From 2016 to 2022 she was a Labour councillor for Oxford City Council. In the 2017 election she stood for parliament in the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency, finishing third. ==Parliamentary career==

In June 2022, Tidball was selected to stand as the Labour candidate for the 2024 election, with the backing of multiple trade unions, as well as Dan Jarvis, Stephanie Peacock and David Blunkett. In July 2024, she was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Penistone and Stocksbridge. In September 2024, Tidball unsuccessfully stood for election as chair of the Education Select Committee. Tidball supported Kim Leadbeater's bill introducing assisted suicide into law and served on the committee examining the legislation. ==Personal life==

She has a daughter, and has lobbied for better maternity care and assistance for disabled mothers. == Selected works ==