2005 and the All Party Balanced and Sustainable Communities Group from 2007. Blackman-Woods was also a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the Inter-Parliamentary Union throughout her Parliamentary career. In 2010, she was re-elected to Parliament with a majority of 3,067, and was appointed Shadow Minister for Business in June 2010, before being moved to shadow the Civil Society Minister by new Labour Leader Ed Miliband in October 2010. In the October 2011 shadow cabinet re-shuffle, Blackman-Woods was moved to become Shadow Minister in Communities and Local Government covering planning policy and procurement. In 2015, she was re-elected with a majority of 11,439, and was confirmed as the shadow housing minister. She resigned from the front bench in June 2016, before supporting Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election. She subsequently rejoined the front bench on Corbyn's re-election. She was re-elected in 2017 with a majority of 12,362, and in July 2017 she was appointed as a Shadow International Development Minister. On 16 July 2019 she announced that she would not be standing at the next general election for family reasons. She gave her valedictory speech in the House of Commons on 5 November 2019. In 2021 it was reported that Blackman-Woods had been subject to an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. The Commissioner applied no sanctions to Blackman-Woods, who stated there was "strong medical reasons" for the issues that were raised. Post-parliamentary career Blackman-Woods was appointed as chairwoman of governors at Northumbria University in December 2019, commencing the role in August 2020. References External links Roberta Blackman-Woods' maiden speech to the House of Commons BBC News Election 2005 results for the City of Durham |- 1957 births 21st-century British women politicians Academics of Northumbria University Alumni of Ulster University Councillors in Newcastle upon Tyne Councillors in Oxfordshire Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Living people Politicians from Belfast UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for City of Durham 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Women councillors in England