Maria Bird-Browne

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Maria Vanessa Bird-Browne (born 1991) is a politician in Antigua and Barbuda. She has served as the member of Parliament for St. John's Rural East since 2018. At 26, she became the youngest lawmaker in the country and, at the time, the youngest woman in the Commonwealth in such a role. She is the minister for housing, lands, and urban renewal, and also serves as a junior minister in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Public Safety, and Labor, with a focus on housing and infrastructure.

Bird-Browne comes from a prominent political family. Her grandfather Vere Bird was Antigua and Barbuda’s first prime minister, and her uncle Lester Bird also served as prime minister. Her father Purcell Bird founded Murbee Resorts on Barbuda. She earned a psychology degree from the University of Phoenix and completed a law degree in 2019 from Arden University.

In 2018 she ran for the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party in St. John's Rural East, a seat previously held by her uncle Lester Bird. She won and was endorsed by the former prime minister as his successor; the party said she was chosen based on a poll rather than influence. Her election marked the first time a husband and wife served together in Parliament, as her husband, Prime Minister Gaston Browne, has led the country since 2014.

In the 2023 general election she was re-elected to St. John's Rural East, receiving 1,770 votes. She continues to serve as minister for housing, works, lands, and urban renewal. The couple has two children, a son named Prince Gaston Browne and a daughter named Peace-Marie Xandra Browne; Gaston Browne also has three other children from before their marriage.