Jo Stevens

Joanna Meriel Stevens (born 6 September 1966) is a Welsh politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales since 2021, and previously from 2016 to 2017.

She studied law at Manchester University and completed the Solicitors' Professional Examination at Manchester Polytechnic in 1989.

Prior to becoming an MP, Stevens was People and Organisation Director of Thompsons Solicitors.

In 2014 she accused her then Liberal Democrat opponent Jenny Willott of having “neglected her constituency” by taking a ministerial role.

A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiff Central since 2015.

Stevens was elected as MP for Cardiff Central on 7 May 2015 with a majority of 4,981, defeating incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Willott.

In a 2015 interview Stevens said that, if elected, she'd be “happy as a backbench MP” adding she was “not a professional politician.” Stevens later went on to serve in the Shadow cabinets of Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer.

Stevens previously served as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales from 2016 to 2017, and was Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2020 to 2021.

Stevens was born in Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales and grew up in Mynydd Isa, Flintshire, where she attended Argoed High School and Elfed High School.

In Jeremy Corbyn's January 2016 reshuffle, she was appointed Shadow solicitor general and Shadow justice minister.

She supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.

In the October 2016 reshuffle, after Corbyn's re-election as party leader, Stevens became Shadow Secretary of State for Wales.

An opponent of Brexit, she resigned as a Shadow minister on 27 January 2017 in order to vote against triggering Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, in defiance of a three-line whip that obliged Labour MPs to vote in favour.

In March 2019, Stevens voted against the Labour Party whip and in favour of an amendment tabled by members of The Independent Group for a second public vote on Brexit.

Stevens chairs the GMB parliamentary group, which ensures that issues of importance to members of the GMB trade union are raised in the House of Commons.

Stevens supported Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.

He subsequently appointed her Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, shadowing Oliver Dowden.

On 29 November 2021, she was reshuffled back to the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Wales by Keir Starmer.

In January 2021 Stevens was treated in hospital for COVID-19.