Julie was a Labour MEP for NW England from July 2014 to January 2020. She was vice chair of the culture and education committee and a member of the committees for women's rights and gender equality, regional development, and economic and monetary affairs. She co-founded a parliamentary intergroup on child rights and was co-president of the anti-racism and diversity intergroup. She served on the delegation for relations with Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo and was a member of the EU-African, Caribbean and Pacific joint parliamentary assembly. She is the Vice Chair of Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform and a member of Politics For The Many, a trade union campaign for PR.