Paula Bradshaw

Paula Jane Bradshaw (born 1 November 1972) is an Alliance Party politician from Northern Ireland. She has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for South Belfast since the 2016 election.[1]

Paula Bradshaw

MLA
Alliance Party Spokesperson for Health and Social Care
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Belfast South
Assumed office
May 2016
Preceded byAnna Lo
Councillor on Belfast City Council
In office
2014–2016
ConstituencyBalmoral
Personal details
Born (1972-11-01) 1 November 1972
NationalityNorthern Irish
Political partyAlliance (2012–present)
Ulster Unionist (until 2012)
Spouse(s)Ian Parsley(2010–)
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Ulster
Queens University Belfast
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionCommunity worker
WebsiteAlliance Party profile

Early life and career

Bradshaw attended Whiteabbey Primary School and then Belfast High School.[2] She subsequently completed a degree in European Business at Ulster University at Coleraine, before returning to study law and government part-time at the Jordanstown campus.[2]

Following her graduation, Bradshaw spent a year in Sheffield working in market research, before returning to work for the South Belfast Traders Association. After three years, she took a position as an economic development officer with the South Belfast Partnership Board. In 2003, she became the director of Greater Village Regeneration Trust, where she remained until her election to the Assembly in 2016.[2]

Political career

Bradshaw contested the 2010 general election for the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists. In October 2010, she resigned her Ulster Unionist Party membership, later telling the Belfast Telegraph, "I just couldn't stay in a party that's sexist, homophobic and sectarian so I resigned."[2][3] She cited comments made by Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott, who said he would never attend Pride or a GAA match, as well as her treatment in a selection whereby members had questioned her ability to be an Assembly member as a working mother.[2]

In November 2010, Bradshaw joined the Alliance Party.[4] She first took public office when she was elected to Belfast City Council as a representative for the Balmoral electoral area in May 2014.

Bradshaw was selected to replace Anna Lo as the lead Alliance candidate for Belfast South in the 2016 Assembly elections, winning election with 9.1% of first-preference votes. In the 2017 snap Assembly election, she was re-elected with 13% of first-preferences. She currently serves as the Alliance Party's health spokesperson and, in 2020, was appointed Assembly Private Secretary at the Department of Justice to support Minister Naomi Long.

gollark: The alternative alternative would be to have the title displayed on a page optionally be different to the title used for linking, but that could be confusing.
gollark: The alternative would be to give each page a fixed canonical ID, and rewrite links appropriately *on edit* to use that.
gollark: That would be awful so no.
gollark: And create a redirect possibly? Or rewrite the links, but that would be hard.
gollark: If I add renaming, it'll move the history and create a revision saying "moved".

References
  1. Profile Archived 9 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine, u.tv, 7 May 2016.
  2. "As a woman in the public eye, I get an awful lot of sleazy people contacting me. Men try to hit on me all the time. It's sad... what are they expecting me to do?". Belfast Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  3. "Bradshaw quits Ulster Unionists". BBC News. 5 October 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  4. "Bradshaw to join Alliance Party". BBC News. 4 November 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
Northern Ireland Assembly
Preceded by
Anna Lo		 MLA for Belfast South
2016–present		 Incumbent
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