Rachel Hopkins | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Member of Parliament for Luton South | |||||||||
Assumed office 12 December 2019 | |||||||||
Preceded by | Gavin Shuker | ||||||||
Majority | 8,756 (20.8%) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Member of Luton Council | |||||||||
In office 5 May 2011 –March 2021 | |||||||||
Ward | Barnfield (2011–2019) High Town (2019–2021) | ||||||||
Succeeded by | Umme Ali | ||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||
Born | Rachel Louise Hopkins 30 March 1972 Luton,Bedfordshire,England | ||||||||
Political party | Labour | ||||||||
Other political affiliations | Socialist Campaign Group | ||||||||
Parent |
| ||||||||
Relatives | Harold Hopkins (grandfather) | ||||||||
Website | rachelhopkins | ||||||||
Rachel Louise Hopkins (born 30 March 1972) [1] is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South since 2019. [2] A member of the Labour Party, she was a Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2021 to 2023.
Hopkins was a Member of Luton Borough Council from 2011 to 2021, on which she served as Executive Member for Public Health. [3] [4]
Hopkins was born in Luton and Dunstable University Hospital and raised in Biscot. She attended Denbigh High School and then Luton Sixth Form College before going on to study at the University of Leicester. Her first full-time job was at TSB Bank. She later studied part-time for a master's degree from the University of Bedfordshire. [5]
Hopkins previously worked at the Electoral Commission and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. [6] She has been a governor for Luton Sixth Form College since 2014. [5]
Hopkins served on Luton Borough Council from May 2011 until her resignation in March 2021, [7] and was Executive Member for Public Health on the Council. [3]
On Friday 1 November 2019, she was selected as the Labour candidate for the Luton South constituency. She was selected by a panel of four, rather than by the local membership. [8] [3] She won the 2019 United Kingdom general election for Luton South with 51.8% of the vote. [2]
Hopkins is considered to be on the left of the Labour Party and a member of the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group. [3] She voted for Brexit in the 2016 EU referendum, making her one of the few known Labour MPs to have done so. [9]
She was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, Marsha de Cordova, in May 2020. [10] Hopkins resigned from the position to vote against the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill, rebelling against the Labour whip. [11] She became a PPS once again in May 2021, this time to Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey. [12]
Hopkins was appointed as a Shadow Cabinet Office Minister in the December 2021 opposition front bench reshuffle. [13] She was appointed Shadow Minister for Veterans and Defence people in July 2022.
In November 2023, she resigned from the frontbench to vote for a ceasefire in Gaza. [14]
She currently lives in High Town, Luton with her partner, Iain Sinclair. She was previously married but now divorced. [5] Her father, Kelvin, served as MP for Luton North from 1997 to 2019. Her grandfather, Harold, was a physicist twice nominated for a Nobel Prize.
A humanist, she was elected Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group in 2022. [15]
Kelvin Peter Hopkins is a British politician. He was first elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Luton North in 1997. Hopkins was suspended by the Labour Party in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him in the 2017 Westminster sexual misconduct allegations. Hopkins did not stand for re-election in the 2019 general election.
Kerry Gillian McCarthy is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol East since 2005. A member of the Labour Party, she is the Shadow Minister for Climate Change. She was Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2015 to 2016.
Barbara Mary Keeley is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Worsley and Eccles South, previously Worsley, since 2005.
Jeff Smith is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Withington since 2015, and the Shadow Minister for Clean Power and Consumers since September 2023. A former Manchester City Councillor, he served as a senior opposition whip in Parliament from 2015 to 2021, and Shadow Minister for Local Government from May to 4 December 2021.
Gavin Shuker is a British former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South from 2010 to 2019. Shuker was a Labour Party MP before defecting to form Change UK. He then left Change UK to become an Independent politician and was defeated at the 2019 election, coming third with 9.3% of the vote.
Lilian Rachel Greenwood is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham South since 2010, and the Shadow Minister for Arts, Heritage and Civil Society since 2023.
Olivia Frances Blake is a British Labour politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam at the 2019 general election.
Rachael Helen Maskell is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for York Central since 2015. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she was Shadow Environment Secretary from 2016 to 2017 and Shadow Employment Secretary in 2020.
Ruth Margaret Cadbury is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentford and Isleworth since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Shadow Minister for Prisons, Parole and Probation since 2023. A former planning consultant, Cadbury previously served on the opposition front bench as Shadow Minister for Housing from 2016 to 2017, Shadow Minister for Planning in 2021 and Shadow Minister for International Trade from 2021 to 2023.
Gillian Furniss is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough since 2016. A member of the Labour Party, she was a Member of Sheffield City Council from 1999 to 2016.
Eleanor Claire Reeves is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham West and Penge since 2017. A member of the Labour Party, she has served as Labour Party Deputy National Campaign Coordinator since 2023. She previously served as Shadow Solicitor General for England and Wales from April 2020 to December 2021 and Shadow Minister for Prisons and Probation from 2021 to 2023.
Anna Rhiannon McMorrin is a Welsh politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiff North since 2017. A member of Welsh Labour, she has served as Shadow Minister for Latin America and the Caribbean since September 2023. She was previously Shadow Minister for Victims and Youth Justice from 2021 to 2023 and Shadow Minister for International Development from 2020 to 2021.
Bethan Winter is a Welsh Labour Party politician. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cynon Valley since the 2019 general election. She is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus.
Kate Helen Osborne is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jarrow since 2019.
Sarah Mei Li Owen is a British politician and trade unionist serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton North since 2019. A member of the Labour Party, Owen is the first MP of South East Asian descent and the first female MP of Chinese descent.
Abena Oppong-Asare is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Erith and Thamesmead in the 2019 general election. She and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, both elected in the 2019 general election, are the first female British Ghanaian MPs.
Taiwo Owatemi is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North West since 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she was Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities from September 2021 to September 2022.
Paula Barker is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Wavertree since 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the Shadow Minister for Devolution and the English Regions from September 2023 to November 2023.
The frontbench of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom consists of the Shadow Cabinet and other shadow ministers of the political party currently serving as the Official Opposition. From 2015 to 2020, Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition was the Labour Party, and the Leader of the Opposition was Jeremy Corbyn.
The frontbench of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom consists of the Shadow Cabinet and other official shadow ministers of the political party currently serving as the Official Opposition. The Opposition front bench provide Parliamentary opposition to the British Government front bench, and is currently the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer since April 2020.