Lucy Powell

Lucy Maria Powell (born 10 October 1974)^[1] is a British Labour and Co-operative politician and Member of Parliament for Manchester Central. She was first elected at the Manchester Central by-election in November 2012. In September 2015 she was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet, but formed part of the mass resignation in June 2016.

Early life

Powell was born in Moss Side. She attended Beaver Road Primary School and Parrs Wood High School in the suburb of Didsbury, and then studied for A-levels at Xaverian College.^[2] She read chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford and King's College London, gaining a Bachelor of Science (BSc).^[3]

Powell joined the Labour Party at the age of 15.

Political career

Powell began her career working as a parliamentary assistant for Beverley Hughes MP after having worked at the Labour Party Headquarters in Millbank Tower during the 1997 general election campaign.^[4]

She joined the pro-Euro and pro-EU Treaty pressure group Britain in Europe (BiE) originally in a public relations role and later as head of regional campaigning.^[5] She later replaced Simon Buckby as Campaign Director of BiE and in this capacity she worked with Chris Patten, Neil Kinnock, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander.^[6]

After Britain in Europe was wound down in June 2005 because of the referendum "No" votes in France and the Netherlands, she worked for the non-departmental public body or quango NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) inititally in a public affairs role and later to establish and manage the Manchester Innovation Fund project.

She was selected as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Manchester Withington in April 2007 to contest the seat against the incumbent Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament, John Leech for the 2010 general election. In her leaflets Powell promised to stick up for Withington residents and stay in the area. She failed to defeat Leech at the 2010 general election.

From May 2010 to September 2010 Powell managed Ed Miliband's successful campaign for the Labour Party leadership.^[7] She then served as Ed Miliband's acting and later deputy chief of staff from September 2010 to April 2012.

She was selected by the local Constituency Labour Party (CLP) in April 2012 for the 15 November 2012 Manchester Central by-election. She was chosen (with 400 party members eligible to vote) from a shortlist of four candidates which also included local councillors Mike Amesbury and Rosa Battle and the London councillor Patrick Vernon. The by-election was triggered by Tony Lloyd who stepped down as its MP to contest the England and Wales Police and Crime Commissioner elections, 2012 for Greater Manchester Police area.

Member of Parliament (2012–present)

Powell was elected at the Manchester Central by-election held in November 2012. She won the election with a majority of 9,936 votes^[8] and is Manchester's first female Labour member of parliament.^[9] The voter turnout of 18.2% at the by-election is believed to be the lowest in a by-election since the Second World War.^[10] Powell also became the only woman elected from Manchester since 1964.^[11]

A month after her election, Powell announced she was pregnant with her second child. On 27 May 2013 she gave birth to a boy, Tom James Williamson.^[12] In December, The Sun published a news story featuring a list of the "Top 10 Laziest MPs" based on voting records, without acknowledging that Powell had been on maternity leave.^[13] The article also failed to note that Powell had been paired.^[13] The Sun removed the article from its website and printed an apology to Powell.^[14]

In November 2014, she was appointed shadow Cabinet Office minister and vice-chair of the 2015 General Election campaign by Ed Miliband.^[15] In the 2015 general election campaign, Labour suffered a net loss of 26 seats including 40 in Scotland.^[16] She wrote a letter of protest to the BBC about their coverage of the election, saying: "Your bulletins and output have become disproportionately focused on the SNP and Tory claims that Labour would enter into a deal which would damage the rest of the UK … We strongly object not only to the scale of your coverage but also the apparent abandonment of any basic news values, with so much reporting now becoming extremely repetitive".^[17]

She was heavily criticised for apparently suggesting that Labour's election pledges were liable to be broken. Talking about the so-called 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.^[18] She was also responsible for Ed Miliband's interview with Russell Brand.^[19] As a result of these actions coupled to the result, Tanya Gold writing for The Sunday Times described her as "discredited".^[20] In response to the result Powell stated, "I bear my share of responsibility in this".^[21]

Powell was appointed as Shadow Education Secretary on 13 September 2015 by Jeremy Corbyn, succeeding Tristram Hunt. As Shadow Education Secretary, she argued for bringing free schools and academies under Local Education Authority control.^[22] She resigned from the Shadow Cabinet on 26 June 2016, along with dozens of shadow cabinet colleagues unhappy with Corbyn's leadership.^[23][24]

Political views

In a July 2012 interview, she stated: "I've always said it's never been economically right for Britain to be part of the Euro, but I've always argued that Britain should be at the centre of Europe rather than on its fringes".^[25]

Personal life

She is married to James Williamson, an emergency medicine doctor, and has three children – a step-son, daughter and a son who was born on 27 May 2013.^[25]

She supports Manchester City football club.^[26]

References

External links

• Lucy Powell – UK Parliament Profile
• Lucy Powell – theyworkforyou.com
• Lucy Powell Twitter account
• articles by Lucy Powell at The Guardian