Before being elected as a Member of Parliament, Sherriff worked in the police force, providing victim support, and on the frontline of the National Health Service in community care. Her sister Lee Sherriff was an unsuccessful candidate for Carlisle in the 2015 general election. In March 2020, Sherriff was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Parliamentary career
Following her election, in September 2015 Sherriff secured an agreement from WHSmith to reduce the price of their goods in hospitals, against whom had she had launched a campaign for exploiting vulnerable patients and their families. Subsequently, the company agreed to match their high street prices in hospital stores. In 2015, Sherriff was appointed as a ministerial aide to shadow local government and communities secretary Jon Trickett. On 11 January 2016, Sherriff resigned from this role to campaign against "Tory cuts" and to focus on her work on the health select committee. Paula Sherriff became the first backbench MP in Parliamentary history to have an amendment to a government Budget resolution successfully adopted when her motion to abolish the "Tampon Tax" was passed. On 21 March 2016, the government acknowledged that the "Tampon Tax" would be abolished. Both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Labour Party commended her work on the issue. She supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election. Sherriff secured a U-turn on planned reduction in bed numbers at Dewsbury hospital and has campaigned against the hospital being downgraded. Sherriff has also campaigned against proposed downgrades to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. Sherriff is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Hate Crime and Women's’ Health and has secured millions of pounds of funding for endometriosis research. She was appointed Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Social Care in January 2018 and has led on the Labour Party's efforts to secure additional funding for mental health services and provide early intervention with effective child and adolescent mental health services. In September 2019, Sherriff took part in the "humbug debate" and criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his inflammatory language.
