Parliamentary career
Powell was selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Manchester Withington in April 2007. At the 2010 general election,stood in Manchester Withington,coming second with 40.5% of the vote behind the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP John Leech. [10]
Powell was elected as MP for Manchester Central at the 2012 Manchester Central by-election,winning the election with 69.1% of the vote and a majority of 9,936 votes. [11]
Powell first joined the opposition front-bench in October 2013 as Shadow Childcare and Early Years Minister, [12] and entered the Shadow Cabinet in November 2014 as Shadow Cabinet Office Minister.
Powell was appointed vice-chair of the 2015 general election campaign by Ed Miliband, [13] in which Labour suffered a net loss of 26 seats,including a net loss of 40 seats in Scotland. [14] [15] She was heavily criticised for apparently suggesting that Labour's election pledges were liable to be broken:in talking about the EdStone,she commented:"I don't think anyone is suggesting that the fact that he's carved them into stone means that he is absolutely not going to break them or anything like that." She said that she had been quoted out of context. [16] She was responsible for Ed Miliband's interview with Russell Brand,described as a PR blunder. [17] As a result of these actions coupled to the result,Tanya Gold,writing for The Sunday Times ,described her as "discredited". [18] In response to the result,Powell stated,"I bear my share of responsibility in this". [19]
Powell was re-elected as MP for Manchester Central at the 2015 general election with a decreased vote share of 61.3% and an increased majority of 21,639. [20] [21] In the subsequent 2015 Labour Party leadership election,she nominated Andy Burnham. [22]
On 13 September 2015,Powell was appointed as Shadow Education Secretary by Jeremy Corbyn,succeeding Tristram Hunt. As Shadow Education Secretary,she argued for bringing free schools and academies under Local Education Authority control. [23] She resigned from the Shadow Cabinet on 26 June 2016,along with dozens of shadow cabinet colleagues unhappy with Corbyn's leadership. [24] [25] She supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election. [26] However,she later stated that,"We were wrong about Jeremy Corbyn" in an interview following the 2017 general election. [27]
At the snap 2017 general election,Powell was again re-elected,with an increased vote share of 77.4% and an increased majority of 31,445. [28]
In September 2017,the political commentator Iain Dale placed Powell at Number 81 in The 100 Most Influential People on the Left. [29]
In September 2018,Powell introduced legislation in the House of Commons to ban secret,private,invite-only groups on Facebook and hold moderators legally responsible for hate speech or defamation on forums. [30] [31] She is a member of Labour Friends of Israel. [32]
At the 2019 general election,Powell was again re-elected,with a decreased vote share of 70.4% and a decreased majority of 29,089. [33]
On 9 April 2020,Powell rejoined the Labour front bench when she was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers by new party leader Keir Starmer. [34] In a minor reshuffle in May 2021,she was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Secretary of State for Housing,succeeding Thangam Debbonaire. [35]
In the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle,Powell was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Digital,Culture,Media and Sport. [36] Whilst in this post,Powell described herself as a "tech optimist". [37]
At the 2024 general election,Powell was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 50.8% and a decreased majority of 13,797. [38]
Personal life
Powell is married to James Williamson,an emergency medicine doctor,and has three children –a stepson,a daughter,and a son. [3] [40]
Powell supports Manchester City F.C. [9]
Powell was sworn of the Privy Council on 6 July 2024,entitling her to be styled "The Right Honourable". [41]
In 2021,Powell was named as one of 115 landlord Members of Parliament. She disputed this characterisation,tweeting "I have a lodger. I'm not a landlord." Housing lawyer Nick Bano wrote in Jacobin that this nonetheless constitutes being a landlord,and that having a lodger rather than a tenant is no mitigation as lodgers have less housing security than private tenants. He described her response as "defensive",saying she fails "to see a conflict between rent extraction during a housing crisis and the interests of her constituents". [42]
