Janet Daby

Daby's parents were Windrush migrants from Guyana and Jamaica.[1] She was brought up on a council estate where, as a child, racists pelted her windows with eggs three nights in a row.[2] She attended Blackheath Bluecoat School in Greenwich.[1]

Daby is a former Lewisham borough councillor,[3] first elected in 2010,[4] and served as deputy mayor of the London Borough of Lewisham prior to her election as an MP.[5][6] She previously worked in volunteer management and in children's social care, and acted as a registered fostering manager.[5]

A by-election was triggered in Lewisham East by the resignation of the incumbent Labour MP Heidi Alexander in May 2018. Daby was selected as Labour's by-election candidate after hustings involving an all-women shortlist.[7] She retained the seat for Labour in the June 2018 by-election with 50.2% of the vote, although Labour's majority was reduced from 21,213 to 5,629.[8] Turnout, however, was 33.3%, roughly half of the 2017 election where it was 69.3% (typical of modern-day by-elections). She was re-elected in the December 2019 general election with 26,661 votes representing a majority of 17,008.[9]

Daby pledged to fight for the UK to remain in the European Union customs union and the single market.[10]

She was given her first shadow ministerial post on 9 April 2020 by Labour Party leader Keir Starmer as Shadow Minister for Faiths. She resigned from this post on 7 December 2020 after she suggested registrars who have a religious objection to same-sex marriage should be protected from losing their jobs if they refuse to certify the partnership: an action which would be unlawful discrimination. She later apologised for her remarks.[11]

Daby has two children. She has lived in Lewisham for over 20 years.[2]

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou