Lucy Powell

Powell was elected at the Manchester Central by-election held in November 2012. She won the election with a majority of 9,936 votes.[7] Voter turnout of 18.2% at the by-election is believed to be the lowest in a by-election since the Second World War.[8] Powell became Manchester's first female Labour member of parliament[9] and the first woman elected from Manchester since 1964.[10]

In November 2014, she was appointed shadow Cabinet Office minister and vice-chair of the 2015 general election campaign by Ed Miliband.[11] In the campaign, Labour suffered a net loss of 26 seats, including a net loss of 40 seats in Scotland.[12][13] She was heavily criticised for apparently suggesting that Labour's election pledges were liable to be broken: in talking about the so-called 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.[14] She was responsible for Ed Miliband's interview with Russell Brand, described as a PR blunder.[15] As a result of these actions coupled to the result, Tanya Gold writing for The Sunday Times described her as "discredited".[16] In response to the result, Powell stated, "I bear my share of responsibility in this".[17]

In the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, she nominated Andy Burnham.[18]

Powell was appointed as Shadow Education Secretary on 13 September 2015 by Jeremy Corbyn, succeeding Tristram Hunt. As Shadow Education Secretary, she argued for bringing free schools and academies under Local Education Authority control.[19] She resigned from the Shadow Cabinet on 26 June 2016, along with dozens of shadow cabinet colleagues unhappy with Corbyn's leadership.[20][21] She supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election.[22] However, she later stated that, "We were wrong about Jeremy Corbyn" in an interview after the 2017 general election.[23]

In September 2017, the political commentator Iain Dale placed Powell at Number 81 in The 100 Most Influential People on the Left.[24]

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.[25] She is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.[26]

On 9 April 2020, Powell was appointed as Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers by new party leader Keir Starmer.[27]