Lucy Powell

Lucy Maria Powell (born 10 October 1974) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since July 2024. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Central since 2012.

Prior to her election, she worked in campaigning and PR roles for Britain in Europe, NESTA and the Labour Party. She was a shadow Cabinet Office minister and vice-chair for the 2015 general election campaign. She was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education in September 2015, but resigned in June 2016. She served as Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers from April 2020 to May 2021, and Shadow Secretary of State for Housing from May to November 2021. She served as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons from 2023 to May 2024.

Early life and education

Lucy Powell was born on 10 October 1974 in Moss Side. She attended Beaver Road Primary School and Parrs Wood High School in Didsbury, and then studied A-levels at Xaverian College. She studied chemistry at the University of Oxford where she was an undergraduate student at Somerville College, Oxford, and then King's College London.

Career

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

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. She replaced Simon Buckby as Campaign Director of BiE. In this capacity, she worked with Chris Patten, Neil Kinnock, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander.

After BiE 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), initially in a public affairs role and later to establish and manage the Manchester Innovation Fund project.

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

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.

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.

Powell first joined the opposition front-bench in October 2013 as Shadow Childcare and Early Years Minister, 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, in which Labour suffered a net loss of 26 seats, including a net loss of 40 seats in Scotland. 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. She was responsible for Ed Miliband's interview with Russell Brand, described as a PR blunder. As a result of these actions coupled to the result, Tanya Gold, writing for ''The Sunday Times'', described her as "discredited". In response to the result, Powell stated, "I bear my share of responsibility in this".

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. In the subsequent 2015 Labour Party leadership election, she nominated Andy Burnham.

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. She resigned from the Shadow Cabinet on 26 June 2016, along with dozens of shadow cabinet colleagues unhappy with Corbyn's leadership. She supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election. However, she later stated that, "We were wrong about Jeremy Corbyn" in an interview following the 2017 general election.

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.

In September 2017, the political commentator Iain Dale placed Powell at Number 81 in The 100 Most Influential People on the Left.

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. She is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

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.

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. 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.

In the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle, Powell was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Whilst in this post, Powell described herself as a " tech optimist".

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.

Leader of the House of Commons (2024–)

After the Labour Party's victory in the 2024 general election, Powell was appointed the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council by the new Prime Minister Keir Starmer on 5 July.

In September 2024, Powell warned there could have been a " run on the pound" if the government had not made urgent spending cuts in July, including severe limitations to pensioner Winter Fuel Payments which received heavy criticism. The ''Financial Times'' reported several financial experts refuted this claim, including Ben Zaranko from the Institute for Fiscal Policy, who said this suggestion was "silly".

In May 2025, Powell described discussion of rape gangs as a " dog whistle", which was condemned by survivors of the abuse. Reform UK called her comments "abhorrent" and asked the Prime Minister to consider sacking Powell while the Conservatives called on her to resign. She subsequently apologised.

Personal life

Powell is married to James Williamson, an emergency medicine doctor, and has three children – a stepson, a daughter, and a son.

Powell supports Manchester City F.C.

Powell was sworn of the Privy Council on 6 July 2024, entitling her to be styled "The Right Honourable".

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".

Notes

References

External links

*
Lucy Powell Twitter accountarticles by Lucy Powell at ''The Guardian''

, -

, -

, -

, -

, -

, -

, -

, -

, -

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Lucy
1974 births
21st-century English women politicians
Alumni of King's College London
Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford
Lord Presidents of the Council
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Labour Co-operative MPs for English constituencies
Labour Friends of Israel
Labour Party (UK) officials
Living people
People educated at Parrs Wood High School
People from Moss Side
Politicians from Manchester
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–2024
UK MPs 2024–present
One Nation Labour
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Women government ministers in the United Kingdom