Rachel Louise Hopkins (born 30 March 1972) is a British politician who has served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) for Luton South since 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she has been a Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office since 2021. Hopkins was a Member of

Luton Borough Council Luton Borough Council (also known as LBC, or Luton Council) is the local authority of Luton, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It is a member of the East of England ...

from 2011 to 2021, on which she served as Executive Member for Public Health.

Early life and career

Hopkins was born in

Luton and Dunstable University Hospital Luton and Dunstable University Hospital is an acute hospital in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It provides medical and surgical services for over 350,000 people in southern Bedfordshire, the nort ...

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 , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_la ...

. Her first full-time job was at TSB Bank. She later studied part-time for a master's degree from the

University of Bedfordshire The University of Bedfordshire is a public research university with campuses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. The University has roots from 1882, however, it gained university status in 1993 as the University of Luton. The Universi ...

. Hopkins previously worked at the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

and the

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom. It is a statutory body that regulates and inspects all clinics in the United ...

. She has been a governor for Luton Sixth Form College since 2014. Hopkins served on

from May 2011 until her resignation in March 2021, and was Executive Member for Public Health on the Council.

Parliamentary career

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. She won the 2019 United Kingdom general election for Luton South with 51.8% of the vote. Hopkins is considered to be on the left of the Labour Party and a member of the left-wing

Socialist Campaign Group The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a left-wing, democratic socialist grouping of the Labour Party's Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the ...

. She voted for

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAE ...

in the

2016 EU referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

, making her one of the few known Labour MPs to have done so. She was appointed

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

(PPS) to the Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, Marsha de Cordova, in May 2020. Hopkins resigned from the position to vote against the

Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act 2021 (c. 4) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act makes provision for the use of undercover law enforcement agents and covert sources and the committing of crime ...

, rebelling against the Labour whip. She became a PPS once again in May 2021, this time to

Shadow Defence Secretary The Shadow Secretary of State for Defence is a member of the UK Shadow Cabinet responsible for the scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Defence and the department, the Ministry of Defence. The post is currently held by John Healey. Shadow S ...

John Healey. Hopkins was appointed as a Shadow Cabinet Office Minister in the December 2021 opposition front bench reshuffle.

Personal life

She currently lives in High Town, Luton with her partner, Iain. Her father,

Kelvin The kelvin, symbol K, is the primary unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI), used alongside its prefixed forms and the degree Celsius. It is named after the Belfast-born and University of Glasgow-based engineer and ph ...

, served as MP for Luton North from 1997 to 2019. Her grandfather, Harold, was a physicist twice nominated for a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

. A

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

, she was elected Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group in 2022.

References

External links

* Living people 1972 births 21st-century British women politicians English humanists Alumni of the University of Bedfordshire Alumni of the University of Leicester Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Councillors in Bedfordshire Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Luton UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Women councillors in England {{UK-MP-2019-stub