Christina McAnea, Baroness McAnea

The Right Honourable
The Baroness McAnea
McAnea, 2021
4th General Secretary of UNISON
In office
22 January 2021 – 22 January 2026
Preceded byDave Prentis
Succeeded byAndrea Egan
Assistant General Secretary of UNISON
In office
May 2018 – 22 January 2021
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Life peerage
17 August 2026
Personal details
Born1958 (age 67–68)
Glasgow, Scotland
PartyLabour
Children2
EducationUniversity of Strathclyde

Christina Campbell McAnea, Baroness McAnea (born 1958)[1] is a Scottish former trade union leader. She was elected general secretary of UNISON on 22 January 2021, succeeding former general secretary Dave Prentis.[2][3]

She served as UNISON general secretary for 5 years before being succeeded by Andrea Egan in January 2026.[4]

Early life and education

McAnea was born in 1958 in Glasgow, Scotland, and grew up in the Drumchapel area, where she attended St. Pius School (now the location of Drumchapel High School).[2] Her mother was a dinnerlady and her father worked as a general labourer. When McAnea was 11 her mother left her husband due to his alcoholism[5] and she was raised by her mother as a single parent.[6]

After leaving school at 16, she worked in the Civil Service, National Health Service and retail, before enrolling at the University of Strathclyde to study English and history.[1][2]

Career

Early career

After university, McAnea worked at Glasgow City Council as a housing officer, before starting to work for the GMB, where she advised workers taking cases before their employers.[1][2]

UNISON

McAnea has worked at UNISON since its founding in 1993. She previously worked at the National and Local Government Officers' Association (NALGO), initially as women's officer, before its amalgamation into UNISON.[1] She became one of five assistant general secretaries of UNISON in May 2018.

General Secretary of UNISON

McAnea was elected to succeed Dave Prentis as general secretary of UNISON on 11 January 2021, after winning 47.7% of the members' vote. Prentis had been general secretary for 20 years. McAnea took up office on 22 January 2021.

In 2023, McAnea was ranked ninth on the New Statesman' Left Power List, described by the newspaper as having an extensive influence on the left.[7]

McAnea served as UNISON general secretary until January 2026, having lost the 2025 UNISON general secretary election to Andrea Egan.[8]. This would be the first time in UNISON's history that only two candidates would go head-to-head for the position with McAnea receiving 40.18% of the vote to Egan's 59.82%[9][10].

House of Lords

McAnea was conferred as a life peer in the July 2026 political peerages to sit in the House of Lords as a Labour Party peer; she was created as Baroness McAnea, of Kelvingrove in the City of Glasgow on 17 August 2026.[11]

Personal life

McAnea lives in south London and was married to Robert who died in November 2024.[2][12] She has two adult children.[2] McAnea is a member of the Labour Party. In the early 1980s,[1] she was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).[13][14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 White, Philippa (8 November 2002). "Assistants' champion ready for pay battle". TES. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Christina McAnea elected to lead UNISON, the UK's largest union | Press release | News". January 11, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Christina McAnea is the new general secretary of UNISON", UNISON, 11 January 2021. Retrieved 11 January 2021
  4. ↑ "general secretary election 2025". Retrieved 8 January 2026.
  5. ↑ Elliot, Francis (4 April 2021). "How TV turned trade union leader Christina McAnea into a communist". Retrieved 17 July 2026.
  6. ↑ "About Me". Vote Christina. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  7. ↑ Statesman, New (2023-05-17). "The New Statesman's left power list". New Statesman. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
  8. ↑ "Left-wing candidate beats Starmer ally to lead UK's biggest union". BBC. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  9. ↑ Rodgers, Sienna (3 December 2025). "Inside The Unison General Secretary Race That Could See The PM Lose A Major Ally". PoliticsHome. Retrieved 9 January 2026.
  10. ↑ "General secretary election 2025". Retrieved 8 January 2026.
  11. ↑ "No. 65157". The London Gazette. 21 August 2026. p. 16338.
  12. ↑ "A Christmas message from Christina McAnea". UNISON. 16 December 2024. Retrieved 17 July 2026.
  13. ↑ "About Me". Vote Christina. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  14. ↑ Syal, Rajeev (11 January 2021). "Unison union elects Christina McAnea as its first female leader". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2025.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.