Career
Sherriff was previously a councillor in Pontefract on Wakefield District Council. On 11 January 2016, Sherriff resigned as a ministerial aide to shadow local government and communities secretary Jon Trickett. On 11 March 2016 she was criticized on the grounds that she was to be "a guest speaker at a sex segregated rally..hosted by an Islamic extremist who thinks women are “subservient” to mentor
Sherriff is named alongside Shaikh Sulaiman Gani on the advert, a radical imam who calls women “subservient”, condemns homosexuality and wants justice for al-Qaeda terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, currently serving 86 years in jail for the attempted murder of troops in Afghanistan." Later that day she pulled out, her spokesman stating that "“Paula Sherriff withdrew from attending this event as soon as she became aware of the details.
She is strongly of the view that there is no place for extremism of any kind.”.