Holly Lynch: On behalf of Yorkshire – thank you, Linda

This week, Linda McAvan MEP stepped down from elected office after 21 years of serving our region. Whatever your thoughts about the European Union, you could not find a more dedicated public servant, and on behalf of Yorkshire, I wanted to say thank you Linda.

Linda became my boss when I applied to be her communications officer at 24. It was my first job in politics, and gave me a front row seat to witness what a truly amazing woman can achieve with nothing but hard work, determination and the right motivations.

For 21 years, Linda ensured that Yorkshire punched above its already impressive weight at a European level. She has gone on to become one of the most influential women in the world on matters relating to international development and the environment.

From humble beginnings, Linda was born and brought up in Bradford as the sixth of nine children. There was absolutely nothing predetermined about her journey into politics – just a passion for where she was from and a determination to fight for it.

She was elected to the European parliament in 1998 and has been an unstoppable force for good in that time. Following the 2014 elections, Linda became the chair of the parliament’s international development committee, overseeing the EU’s development and humanitarian aid projects. Her role and passion for the nature of the work made a big difference in delivering on the ground in times of crisis, including the Syria conflict and bringing an end to the Ebola outbreak of 2014, which killed over 11,000 people in West Africa.

Prior to her time on the international development committee, Linda served as the lead negotiator for the Tobacco Products Directive, which introduced EU-wide restrictions on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco-related products, including mandatory health warnings on all packaging. Young people across Europe will be less tempted to take up the habit, thanks to the directive that would not have happened without Linda’s leadership.

She founded and chairs the fairtrade group in the European parliament, long before Yorkshire proudly became the first fairtrade region in the country, and she led on new EU-wide laws on the safety of medicines, ensuring that countries across Europe work together to record and respond to problem medicines and medical products. The directive followed the breast implant scandal, which affected women across European countries when it transpired that women had industrial and not medical grade implants. Patients are safer thanks to Linda’s ability to guide the progress needed with that directive.

She was involved in securing regeneration funds for Yorkshire via European Regional Development Funding and Objective 1 and 2, which have brought about opportunities that would have been beyond under any national government. She played a key role in creating the fund intended to make Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) a reality, with millions allocated to Yorkshire’s White Rose project by the EU – money that a Tory government failed to take up.

To many women within the Labour Party, she has been an inspiration and a role model. She has organised International Women’s Day events every year for the last 12 years, raising £79,000 for women’s charities. Women from all over the region have attended and supported those events.

She started the dinners following a trip to a fistula clinic in Ethiopia, where women were living a miserable existence following complications in childbirth, which meant they were incontinent. With a simple surgical procedure, women’s lives were transformed at the Hamlin clinic and Linda set about fundraising to make this possible for more women.

On a more personal note, I would not be the person or the MP I am today without her. When my predecessor Linda Riordan announced that she was standing down with only weeks to go before the 2015 general election, I made the terrifying decision to apply to be the candidate.

I was selected in a six-day selection process, six weeks before polling day. It was the steepest of learning curves. I could not have got through it without Linda giving me a talking to when I needed it, a shoulder to cry on after long days and a can of Diet Coke to keep me going. Ultimately, it was her belief in me, and ability to instil a sense that I could be an elected representative somewhere in the ball park of as good as her, which kept me going.

Although she is stepping down as an MEP, she will continue to use her experience to shape international policy, and she will never be able to step down from being an inspiration to women everywhere. Thank you, Linda.