Yvette Cooper

Yvette Cooper (born 20 March 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Home Secretary under Keir Starmer since 2021, having also served in the position under Ed Miliband from 2011 to 2015.

Cooper was born on 20 March 1969 in Inverness, Scotland.

Her father is Tony Cooper, former General Secretary of the Prospect trade union, a former non-executive director of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and a former Chairman of the British Nuclear Industry Forum.

He was also a government adviser on the Energy Advisory Panel.

Her mother, June, was a maths teacher.

She was educated at Eggar's School, a comprehensive school in Holybourne, and Alton College, both in Alton, Hampshire.

She read Philosophy, politics and economics at Balliol College, Oxford, and graduated with a first-class honours degree.

Cooper began her career as an economic policy researcher for Shadow Chancellor John Smith in 1990 before working in Arkansas for Bill Clinton, nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States, in 1992.

Later that year, she became a policy advisor to then Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Harriet Harman.

At the age of 24, Cooper developed chronic fatigue syndrome, from which it took her a year to recover.

She won a Kennedy Scholarship in 1991 to study at Harvard University, and she completed her postgraduate studies with a MSc in Economics at the London School of Economics.

In 1994 she moved to become a research associate at the Centre for Economic Performance.

In 1995, she became the chief economics correspondent of The Independent, remaining with the newspaper until her election to the House of Commons in 1997.

A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, previously Pontefract and Castleford, since 1997.

One of 101 female Labour MPs elected at the 1997 general election, Cooper was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at three departments under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1999 to 2005.

Cooper was selected to contest the safe Labour seat of Pontefract and Castleford at the 1997 general election, after Deputy Speaker Geoffrey Lofthouse announced his retirement.

She retained the seat for Labour with a majority of 25,725 votes.

Aged 28, she was the third youngest Member of Parliament elected in 1997.

Cooper made her maiden speech in the Commons on 2 July 1997, speaking about her constituency's struggle with unemployment.

She served for two years on the Education and Employment Select Committee.

In 1999, she was promoted as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health.

As a health minister, Cooper helped implement the Sure Start programme.

In this post, she was also the first British government minister in history to take maternity leave.

From 2002 to 2003, Cooper was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department.

In 2003, she became Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regeneration in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister with the responsibility of coalfield regeneration.

She was promoted to Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2005, and was retained in the role when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007.

Following the 2005 general election she was promoted to Minister, as Minister of State for Housing and Planning based in the Department for Communities and Local Government from 2006.

After Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, Cooper was invited to attend cabinet meetings as Housing Minister.

Shortly after taking the job, she was required to introduce the Home Information Pack (HIPs) scheme.

According to Conservative columnist Matthew Parris, Cooper conceived HIPs, but avoided direct criticism for its problems because of her connection with Brown.

She previously served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2008 to 2009 and Work and Pensions Secretary from 2009 to 2010.

In 2008, she was appointed to Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, before being promoted to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2009.

After Labour lost the 2010 general election, Cooper served in Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2010 to 2011.

In 2011, her husband Ed Balls was promoted to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer; Cooper replaced Balls as Shadow Home Secretary and served until Labour lost the 2015 general election.

On 13 May 2015, Cooper announced she would run to be Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election following the resignation of Miliband.

Cooper came third with 17.0% of the vote in the first round, losing to Jeremy Corbyn.

Cooper subsequently resigned as Shadow Home Secretary in September 2015.

Cooper was the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee from 2016 to 2021.

As a backbencher, Cooper repeatedly sought to extend Article 50 to delay Brexit.

She became Shadow Home Secretary again in Keir Starmer’s November 2021 reshuffle.