Maria Exall

Maria Exall (born August 1960^[1]) was the President of the Trades Union Congress for 2022–23, being appointed for her work in the Communication Workers Union.

Education

Maria Exall has a PhD in Philosophical Theology from King's College London.^[2]

Trade unionism

Exall was a care worker, and joined the Confederation of Health Service Employees. In 1988, she moved to work for the BT Group as a communications engineer, and joined the Communication Workers' Union.^[3][4] She became active with the Trades Union Congress (TUC), specialising on equality in the workplace and liaising with the affiliated Labour Party.^[5] Exall supported Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election.^[6]

Exall chairs the TUC LGBT+ Committee, and serves on the General Council of the TUC. She is also a vice president of the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom.^[7] In 2022, she was elected as President of the TUC, the first out LGBT+ person to serve in the post.^[4]

Other work

Exall is an honorary fellow of Catholic Social Thought and Practice in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University.^[2] She was a founder member of the Cutting Edge Consortium, which argued that various exemptions for religious groups should be removed from the Equality Act 2010.^[8]

Personal life

Exall is a Catholic.^[2] She is also a lesbian and has been in a civil partnership with Dame Angela Eagle since 2008.^{[3][9][10][11]}