Olivia Blake

In 2013 Blake stood in the election for the Youth Representative on Labour's National Executive Committee and came second.[2] She campaigned to introduce ‘one member one vote’ elections for internal positions and was supported by the Labour Party's left-wing.[3]

In 2018 Blake was elected to Labour's National Policy Forum with the endorsement of the left-wing groups Momentum and the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance.[4]

Blake unsuccessfully stood in the 2 May 2013 by-election for the Fulwood ward of Sheffield City Council before being elected as a local councillor to the Walkley ward of Sheffield City Council in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Olivia Blake was elected Deputy Leader of the Council in April 2017. Blake said she was elected as Deputy Leader "on a ticket of reform", and worked to in-source council contracts and tackle privatisation.[5] As Deputy Leader, the Council brought its Revenues and Benefits services in-house from outsourcing giant Capita; Blake said that "bringing these services back in-house" would give the Council "greater control and allow [it] to adapt and respond as the city’s priorities develop locally".[6] Before she left her position Blake initiated the process to bring "digital services and cleaning contracts" in-house.[5] She also supported a campaign to initiate a pilot scheme of universal basic income in Sheffield.

Blake later resigned as Deputy Leader to support a grassroots movement to change the democratic structure of the council, remaining as a councillor.[7][8][9] She later resigned from the Council following her election as an MP.[10] In an article she wrote for Tribune magazine, Blake said this was to show support for "a new way of doing politics in our city". She indicated that she intends to "contribute a socialist voice to the referendum debate", to open up a "wider discussion on how to rejuvenate our democracy in Sheffield."[5]

Blake was selected as the prospective Labour Party candidate in Sheffield Hallam in December 2018.[11] She was elected as the Member of Parliament at the December 2019 general election.[12]

She nominated Rebecca Long-Bailey in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election and Angela Rayner in the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election.[13] In February 2020, Blake was elected as the Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).[14] Blake was elected to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee in March 2020.[15]

Blake was appointed to the frontbench as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Andy McDonald, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, in January 2020. Following the election of Keir Starmer, she was appointed in April as PPS jointly to Jo Stevens, Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and Ian Murray, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.[16]

Blake is Vice-Chair of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union Parliamentary Group.[17]

After Wetherspoons' owner Tim Martin was inaccurately reported to have told his 43,000 employees that they would not be furloughed during the covid-19 pandemic, and should go work at Tesco,[18] as Vice-Chair of the BFAWU Parliamentary Group, Blake coordinated a cross-party letter of 95 MPs to calling on Martin to "put people and not profits first" and continue to pay Wetherspoons workers.[19][20]

Blake was forced to resign from her position as PPS to Jo Stevens and Ian Murray in September 2020 when she, alongside 18 other Labour MPs, including two other junior office holders, Beth Winter and Nadia Whittome, defied the Labour whip and voted against the Overseas Operations Bill.[21]