Jennifer Chapman, Baroness Chapman of Darlington (born 25 September 1973) is a British politician and

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

attending shadow cabinet as a

Shadow Minister of State at the Cabinet Office The Shadow Minister of State at the Cabinet Office is a position in the British Shadow Cabinet, appointed by the Leader of the Opposition. The post was made to shadow the Cabinet Office in the Lords, particularly Minister of State for the Cabi ...

since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

from

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. Born in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and raised in

, Chapman served as a Shadow Justice Minister from 2011 to 2016, a Shadow Education Minister in 2016 and a Shadow Brexit Minister from 2016 to 2019. She lost her seat in the House of Commons to the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

candidate at the 2019 general election. She chaired

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras ...

's campaign in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, and was appointed his political secretary and awarded a

life peerage In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages Ac ...

following his election. In 2021, Chapman moved to the opposition front bench in a new position established to shadow

Lord Frost David George Hamilton Frost, Baron Frost (born 21 February 1965) is a British former diplomat, civil servant and politician who briefly served as a Minister of State at the Cabinet Office between March and December 2021. Frost was Chief Nego ...

Early life and career

Chapman was born in September 1973 in Surrey but moved to Darlington at a young age, where she attended

Hummersknott School Hummersknott Academy is a secondary school in Darlington in the north east of England. It schools approximately 1,250 pupils aged eleven to sixteen. It has had specialist Language College status since 2005 and holds accreditations for Artsma ...

and

Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, or QE as it is commonly known, is a sixth form college on Vane Terrace in Darlington, County Durham, England. It educates nearly 2000 students from Darlington and the surrounding areas with students coming fro ...

. before completing a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

in psychology at

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

in 1996, and later took an MA in archaeology at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

in 2004. She had work placements attached to prison psychology departments whilst studying for her undergraduate degree. Chapman worked as constituency office manager for Darlington

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Alan Milburn Alan Milburn (born 27 January 1958) is a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 1992 to 2010. He served for five years in the Cabinet, first as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1998 to 1999, a ...

. After a career break to have children, she returned to politics at

Darlington Borough Council The Borough of Darlington is a unitary authority and borough in County Durham, Northern England. The borough is named after the town of Darlington, and in 2011 had a population of 106,000. It is in the Tees Valley mayoralty. The borough bord ...

when she was elected as borough councillor for the Cockerton West ward in 2007.

Parliamentary career

In November 2009, Chapman was shortlisted as one of four candidates to succeed Milburn as Labour's parliamentary candidate for

on an open shortlist, i.e. not an

all-women shortlist All-women shortlists (AWS) is an affirmative action practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom, allowing only women to stand in particular constituencies for a particular political p ...

. She was selected to stand for parliament by the local constituency party the following month. Chapman said: "This shows that the people of Darlington want to choose a Darlington person who will put the town first." She was elected Darlington MP in the 2010 general election with a majority of 3,388. As a result of her election victory, she decided to stand down as a councillor. Chapman made her

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

in Parliament on 7 June 2010, during which she asked for

social network services A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...

to be regulated to stop

paedophiles Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...

. She also backed the

Building Schools for the Future Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was the name given to the British government's investment programme in secondary school buildings in England in the 2000s. The programme was ambitious in its costs, timescales and objectives, with politicia ...

programme. During her time as an MP, she served as a vice-chair of

Progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...

and campaigned to remain in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

in the 2016 EU membership referendum. In 2011, Chapman was appointed as Shadow Minister for Prisons. She had previously written policy recommendations on the subject of incarceration, including a recommendation that prison officers should receive training to help them rehabilitate inmates. She became Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Years in January 2016, but resigned in June of the same year among dozens of Labour frontbench colleagues. She supported

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...

in the failed attempt to replace

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

in the subsequent leadership election. She later rejoined the Opposition frontbench as Shadow Minister for Exiting the European Union. Chapman was one of the many Labour MPs to be defeated at the 2019 general election, losing her seat to

Peter Gibson Sir Peter Leslie Gibson (born 10 June 1934), is a former British barrister and Lord Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, and is currently a judge of the Qatar International Court. Gibson has also served, between April ...

following 27 years of Labour holding the constituency. After losing her seat, she became chair of

's successful campaign in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election and later accepted the role of political secretary to Starmer in his role as Leader of the Labour Party. In August 2020, ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' reported that Chapman was "likely" to be nominated for a peerage by Starmer, and it was announced in December 2020 that she would join the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

as part of the

2020 Political Honours As part of the British honours system, Special Honours are issued at the Monarch's pleasure at any given time. The Special Honours refer to the awards made within royal prerogative, operational honours, political honours and other honours awarded o ...

. In February 2021, Chapman was made Baroness Chapman of Darlington, ''of

in the County of Durham'', and made her maiden speech on 22 March 2021. Chapman was removed as Starmer's political director in June 2021, after what ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' referred to as "months of friction" with Labour MPs, and was re-appointed to the frontbench, shadowing

at Task Force Europe and the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

Personal life

She married fellow Labour MP Nick Smith in July 2014. She has two children from a previous relationship.

References

External links

Official websiteOld website
(archived) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Jenny 1973 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 Labour Party (UK) life peers People educated at Hummersknott Academy People from Darlington Alumni of Durham University Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs who were granted peerages 21st-century British women politicians 21st-century English women 21st-century English people Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II