Liz Kendall

Elizabeth Louise Kendall (born 11 June 1971) is a British Labour politician who has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since 2023.

Kendall joined the Labour Party in 1992 and, after graduating from Cambridge, worked at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in the area of child development and early years learning.

In 1996, she became a political adviser to Harriet Harman then Harman's government special adviser in the Department for Social Security after Labour won the 1997 general election and Harman became a government minister.

In 1998, when Harman was sacked from the government, Kendall resigned and was awarded a fellowship by the King's Fund, a health charity.

She also wrote a series of research papers for the IPPR and was appointed as the Director of the Maternity Alliance, a charity for pregnant women.

She was unsuccessful in an attempt to be selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Chesterfield at the 2001 general election, following the retirement of Tony Benn.

In 2001, she returned to government to work for Patricia Hewitt, at the Department for Trade and Industry, and then followed her to the Department for Health where she was involved in bringing in the smoking ban in 2006.

She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester West since 2010.

Kendall was born in Abbots Langley, near Watford, Hertfordshire and studied at the University of Cambridge, reading history at Queens' College.

After Hewitt left government, Kendall became the Director of the Ambulance Services Network, where she remained until 2010.

In 2010 Kendall was elected as MP for Leicester West with a majority of 4,017 despite a 7.6% swing away from Labour.

She made her maiden speech in a debate on tackling poverty in the UK on 10 June 2010.

She was briefly a member of the Education Select Committee between July 2010 and October 2010.

She supported David Miliband for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2010.

In Ed Miliband's first reshuffle in October 2010, she joined the Opposition frontbench as Shadow Junior Health Minister where she served under John Healey.

From 2011 to 2015, Kendall served as Shadow Minister for Care and Older People on the Official Opposition frontbench of Ed Miliband, who invited her to attend meetings of his Shadow Cabinet, although she was not technically a Shadow Cabinet member in this position.

In 2011, she contributed along with other Labour MPs and former Labour ministers to The Purple Book, in which she wrote a chapter on the early years and health and social care where she proposed a "Teach Early Years First" scheme.

Later that year, she was appointed to the new role of Shadow Minister for Care and Older People and became an attending member of the shadow cabinet.

Kendall stood in the Labour Party leadership election in September 2015 following the resignation of Ed Miliband.

She finished in last place.

She was re-elected in the 2015 general election, and was reported as being a member of the Breakfast Club; along with Chuka Umunna, Tristram Hunt and Emma Reynolds.

On 10 May 2015, Kendall announced that she was standing as a successor to Ed Miliband for the Labour Party's leadership following its defeat in the general election a few days earlier.

Kendall was regarded by many in the media as the Blairite candidate, though Kendall stated she would like to be known as the "modernising candidate".

In mid-June, Kendall secured the 35 nominations needed for a place in the leadership ballot.

Her leadership bid was supported by Shadow Cabinet colleagues Ivan Lewis, Chuka Umunna, Tristram Hunt, Emma Reynolds and Gloria De Piero.

Senior Labour politicians supporting her included Alan Milburn, Alistair Darling, John Hutton and John Reid.

On 19 May 2015, Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins was appointed as her leadership election campaign manager.

Her campaign director was Morgan McSweeney, head of the LGA Labour Group.

Her director of strategic communications was Mark Ferguson, former editor of LabourList.

Other members of her campaign team included Hopi Sen, Margaret McDonagh and Tony Blair's former press spokesman Matthew Doyle.

She also had the support of the Blue Labour Group within the Labour Party including figures such as Maurice Glasman and Rowenna Davis.

In June 2015, Kendall's leadership bid received praise from The Sun, who said that she is the "only prayer they [the Labour Party] have".

The Sun also praised her for saying "the country comes first" in response to Andy Burnham who said "the Labour Party always comes first" in the Newsnight Labour leadership hustings.

Commentators from across the political spectrum said that Kendall was the leadership candidate the Conservatives would "fear the most".

This claim was even re-stated by some Conservative politicians including George Osborne, Boris Johnson, Ruth Davidson, Anna Soubry and Philip Davies.

Kendall resigned from the Shadow Cabinet following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in September 2015.

Kendall finished 4th in the election, obtaining 4.5% (18,857) of the vote.

In April 2020, Keir Starmer appointed Kendall Shadow Minister for Social Care on the Official Opposition frontbench.

She attended Watford Grammar School for Girls, alongside Geri Halliwell.

After leaving school, she attended Cambridge University, graduating with first class honours.