The Labour party: it’s a family affair. After all, it takes a special dedication to name your oldest son after party founder Keir Hardie, as our new PM’s leftie parents did. While the Chipping Norton Tories could resemble an exclusive country club, being in the Labour party is closer to a quasi-religion, that a few hopeful believers dedicate their lives to. But that means that when they win power, a handful of exceptionally-connected insiders are well-placed to climb the greasy pole of influence.
As many will remember, family was particularly important in the final iteration of New Labour. Central were the Miliband brothers David and Ed, whose relationship went south during their 2010 leadership battle. Alongside them were a power couple – Yvette Cooper, who has just become Home Secretary, and her husband, shadow chancellor turned cha cha enthusiast Ed Balls. A generation older was Harriet Harman, who last week stood down as an MP after 42 years. She was married to the late Jack Dromey, ex-Labour Treasurer.
Family connections in Labour go right back to its formation. Founding member Ramsay MacDonald’s son Malcolm would join his father in becoming a Labour MP. It has carried on down the ages: four generations of Benns have been active in the party – and every Labour prime minister has appointed a member of the clan to their cabinet. Perennial Labour svengali Peter Mandelson, who is close to Starmer and Blair, is grandson of Clement Attlee’s 1945 election guru Herbert Stanley Morrison.
Seasoned political observer Michael Cockerell says that while the “Tory party is riddled,” with familial links, Labour people “often think of themselves as comrades and relations” instead – a subtle distinction. “That’s the way the Labour party operates: it’s meant to be a fraternal party of brothers” he says. That can mean that “they are real relations – their brother or mother or father have been in the Labour Party, or been MPs”.
However, family links in Labour do risk contradicting with their meritocratic values. “Over the years, the Labour party has sort of sneered at the way that people come in as sons or daughters of MPs,” Cockerell says. “They are against what they would see as nepotism, where people inherit their father’s seat.” That means that Starmer may have to be careful not to over promote those with familial links in his cabinets. “The worst thing is if someone becomes an MP and then a minister, and it doesn’t look as though they have better ability to do the job than other people,” Cockerell goes on. “There’s always that question, and for a Prime Minister it’s always very difficult.”
Starmer’s Labour is modern in impressive ways, welcoming a record 189 women to the Commons, and with 92 per cent of the cabinet educated at state schools. But a certain kind of nepotism still abounds, just as it always did. Could the Labour party’s brand of jobs for the boys (and girls) have just as much impact on democracy as the Tories’ did? Here, we run down some of the best-connected MPs this Parliament.
Georgia Gould
Unusually for new MPs, Georgia Gould has already been given a junior ministerial role, as a parliamentary secretary in the Cabinet Office – one of five of the new intake to get the nod. But this is no ordinary new starter. She’s daughter of Blair-era strategist Lord Philip Gould, who obsessively polled public opinion to help shape the New Labour brand.
Georgia was knocking doors for Labour as soon as she could walk, and a recently unearthed cover of Private Eye magazine from 1987 shows her being carried as a baby by then leader Neil Kinnock. Her mother, Gail Rebuck is a top publisher, including of family friend Alastair Campbell’s diaries. As well as being MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale, Georgia is also leader of Camden Council.
Ellie Reeves
The Labour party has a new chair in Ellie Reeves, who just happens to be the younger sister of the first female Chancellor, Rachel. Former barrister Ellie has also become Minister of State without portfolio in the cabinet. She has joked that Rachel was more like a “pushy parent” than a sister when they were growing up, giving her extra homework and making sure she behaved.
The two once competed in chess tournaments together. Ellie’s husband, John Cryer, was previously a Labour MP for over 25 years, and has just stood down. Cryer is the son of Ann and Bob, both themselves Labour MPs.
Imogen Walker
There’s been no ministerial role as yet for new Hamilton and Clyde Valley MP Imogen Walker. But she has direct links to Number 10, as the wife of Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s new head of political strategy, who led his election campaign, and was boss of the influential Labour Together thinktank.
The pair now live in rural South Lanarkshire, but started out in politics in south London, both serving on Lambeth Council. Walker has had a varied career. As an actor, she had roles in Taggart and Doctors, before going into the charity sector. She is also an animal welfare activist, and former vice president of the RSPCA.
Liam Conlon
New MP for Beckenham and Penge, Liam Conlon, has a mum in high places in Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff. On election night, Gray left the room where Starmer’s team were watching the exit poll on TV to get to Conlon’s count across town.
Conlon is chair of the Labour Party Irish Society, and also one of 47 new MPs endorsed by the Labour Movement for Europe, which wants a closer deal with the EU. On polling day, he was joined knocking doors by David Evans, general secretary of the Labour Party, and London mayor Sadiq Khan. Conlon previously worked for a firm that helped children learn computer coding.
Pat McFadden
Pat McFadden is now at the heart of Government, having just been made the new Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He played a key role in getting Keir Starmer elected, as national campaign coordinator. McFadden met his wife Marianna in Labour’s 2001 general election “war room”, and the pair are die hard party faithful. Having had a stint at the Tony Blair Institute, Marianna spent the election as deputy campaign director at Labour HQ. Pat was one of Tony Blair’s closest advisers in Downing Street, and has been MP for Wolverhampton South East since 2005.
Katie White
Katie White has just become MP for Leeds North West, after working in the charity sector. Her husband is Sam White, a still influential former chief of staff to Keir Starmer, who helped turn around Labour’s fortunes in opposition (Sam’s dad Michael is an ex-Guardian political editor).
There are plenty of other similar power couples in Labour. Rachel Reeves’s new political secretary Matt Pound is in a relationship with Pat McFadden’s advisor Henna Shah, while the new head of the No 10 policy unit Stuart Ingham is with Jess Leigh, who works in the party’s press office.
Hamish Falconer
Hamish Falconer’s dad Charlie met Tony Blair when they were both school boys, and they were later flatmates as young barristers in London. Now his son Hamish has become MP for Lincoln, after a period in the Foreign Office, where he specialised in hostage recovery. Charlie failed in his hope to be a Labour MP because he wouldn’t take his four sons out of private school, but was made a Labour peer and served in the cabinet. Could Hamish pull the levers of power too?
James Naish
Alastair Campbell was the king of spin when he was Downing Street’s director of communications under Tony Blair. But the podcast king has credited his nephew James Naish with more wholesome tactics in his successful fight to win Ken Clarke’s old seat of Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire.
After joining him getting out the vote, Campbell said the high turnout in the seat showed Naish is “living proof that there is no substitute in campaigning for shoe leather and door knocking”. Naish was previously a councillor in Bassetlaw, and like his uncle, has reportedly been an adviser for the Prime Minister of Albania.
Douglas Alexander
Some thought they’d seen the end of ex-Blair era Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander when he lost his seat in the SNP rout of 2015. But he’s back as the MP for Lothian East, and already has a ministerial job in the Business department. He’s yet another well-connected Scot in the Labour party, as his sister Wendy used to be Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, and an MSP. She’s now the Scottish Government’s Trade & Investment Envoy for Higher Education.
The Eagle sisters
It’s been a good week for the stalwart Eagle twins, Angela and Maria, who between them have now racked up nearly 60 years as Labour MPs. Dame Angela, who is MP for Wallasey, has just been made a minister in the Home Office, while Liverpool Garston MP Maria is now Defence Procurement minister. They come from a working class background in Sheffield, and both studied PPE at Oxford, before becoming ministers in the New Labour era. Angela’s civil partner, Maria Exall, was President of the Trades Union Congress. It seems a long time since then PM David Cameron told Angela to “Calm down, dear” from the dispatch box in 2011.
Joani Reed
Starmer’s Labour have mostly purged the old left, but some links to it remain. Joani Reid, who has just been elected as MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven, is granddaughter of the famous union activist Jimmy who led a work-in by the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, who hoped to stop Edward Heath’s Tories government from closing down their shipyards in 1971.
Joani led a remarkable swing from the SNP to take the seat. She previously worked as policy manager at the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, as well as being a councillor in Lewisham.
Hilary Benn
Like clockwork, with a Labour Government comes a cabinet appointment for the Benn clan. Last week, Hilary Benn was made Northern Ireland Secretary, and promptly flew to Belfast. He is expected to “repeal and replace” the Legacy Act, which involves a conditional amnesty for people accused of Troubles-related crimes. Hilary, who served under Brown and Blair, has serious pedigree: his much-loved father Tony was a minister for Harold Wilson, while his grandfather William Wedgwood Benn served under Ramsay MacDonald and Clement Atlee. It’s not clear if his niece Emily, who unsuccessfully fought the 2010 and 2015 elections, will keep the Benn flag flying in Labour.
Stephen Kinnock
Perhaps the most influential Labour family of all are the Kinnocks. Stephen Kinnock, son of ex-leader Neil, has just been made care minister. Earlier this year, Neil gave an emotional interview revealing that Keir Starmer, who lives nearby, had been one of the first people to comfort him when his wife Glynys – who was herself a powerful Labour figure – died in December. Other North London neighbours of the Kinnocks include Ed Miliband, of that other famous Labour family. Stephen’s wife Helle Thorning-Schmidt has impressive political chops of her own, as ex-PM of Denmark. Their son, Milo, recently came out of trans, and got the full backing of his proud grandfather.
Jenny Chapman
Jenny Chapman ran Keir Starmer’s bid to become party leader, and has a Labour MP husband of her own in Nick Smith, who represents Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney in Wales. Chapman started out as office manager for Alan Milburn – who has just returned with an advisory role in the Health Department – before replacing him as MP for Darlington. When she lost her seat in 2019, she chaired Starmer’s successful campaign to become Labour leader, but was forced out as his political secretary. She was made Baroness Chapman of Darlington in 2021.
And the rest
The more you look under the hood, the more you find Labour people who keep it in the family. Labour MP and now speaker Lindsay Hoyle is son of long-serving MP and then life peer Doug – who retired from the Lords last year. Similarly, Luton South MP Rachel Hopkins is daughter of ex-MP Kelvin, while Sheffield Hallam MP Olivia Blake is daughter of Labour peer Judith Blake.
Not everyone in Labour has ancestors of the same stripe. The surprise new Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy’s maternal grandfather Frank Byers actually represented the Liberal party long ago. Meanwhile, the newly elected MP for Mid and South Pembrokeshire, Henry Tufnell, comes from a long line of Whig politicians. The Tufnells may well have joined Labour if they could, but the party didn’t exist back then.