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Nadia Whittome

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Nadia Whittome
MP
Member of Parliament
for Nottingham East
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byChris Leslie
Majority17,393 (43.4%)
Personal details
BornNottingham, England
Political partyLabour

Nadia Edith Whittome[1] is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham East constituency in the 2019 general election. At the age of 23, she was the youngest MP elected in the general election and therefore became the Baby of the House.

Early life

Whittome was born in Nottingham, England into a working-class family.[2] She grew up in The Meadows, Nottingham in a single-parent household,[3][4] and attended West Bridgford School, a local comprehensive.[5] She commented that she first got involved in politics in 2013 due to the effects of the bedroom tax and austerity on her local community.[3][6]

Whittome worked as a parliamentary intern in the office of Pat Glass, Shadow Minister of State for Europe, during the 2016 European Union referendum campaign.[7] She studied law at the Nottingham University after attending an access course at Nottingham College.[8] While studying there, she contested the 2017 Nottinghamshire County Council election as the Labour Party candidate for the West Bridgford West ward, where she finished second to the Conservative candidate with 1,393 votes.[1][5] Whittome then worked as a hate crime project worker at Communities Inc.[9]

Prior to her election, she was a national committee member of pro-Remain left-wing organisations Another Europe is Possible, and Labour for a Socialist Europe.[10][11][12]

Parliamentary career

Whittome was selected as the Labour Party candidate for Nottingham East on 28 October 2019.[8] She was elected as MP for the constituency in the December general election with a majority of 17,393 (43.4%).[13] At the age of 23, she was the youngest MP elected in the general election, and therefore gained the unofficial title of Baby of the House.[3][14] The seat has been held by the Labour Party since the 1992 general election, and had previously been represented by Chris Leslie who himself is a former Baby of the House.[4][15][a] Whittome is of Punjabi-descent, and was also the first BAME MP elected in Nottingham.[16]

Shortly after her election, she announced that she would only be keeping the equivalent of "an average worker's wage", as determined by the Office for National Statistics, of £35,000, and would donate the remainder of her £79,468 salary as an MP to local charities.[3][4]

Notes

  1. ^ Leslie won the seat in the 2017 general election as a Labour candidate before leaving the party in February 2019 to join Change UK.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "West Bridgford West". Nottingham County Council. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  2. ^ Lowe, Yohannes (14 December 2019). "Youngest MP elected in 2019 intake vows to give half her salary to local charities". The Daily Telegraph.(subscription required)
  3. ^ a b c d "Nadia Whittome: Youngest MP had been looking for temp work". BBC News. 16 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Reid, Ben (13 December 2019). "Country's youngest MP donating a huge chunk of her salary to charity". Nottingham Post. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Labour selects all-women candidates for Bridgford" (PDF). West Bridgford Local News. January 2017. p. 11. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  6. ^ Smoke, Ben (9 December 2019). "Nadia Whittome: Labour's bright young hope for Britain Knock Knock: An Election Special". Huck.
  7. ^ Thompson, Jackie (4 July 2017). "Nadia Whittome, first year law student talks about her interest in politics and experience to date!". University of Nottingham. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  8. ^ a b Locker, Joseph (28 October 2019). "Former Meadows care worker selected as Labour candidate for Nottingham East". Nottingham Post. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  9. ^ Bond, Daniel (16 December 2019). "Class of 2019: Meet the new MPs". Politics Home.
  10. ^ Ismail, Sacha (30 October 2019). "Left win in Nottingham East". Workers' Liberty. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  11. ^ "National Committee". Another Europe is Possible. 5 February 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  12. ^ "What we fight for". Labour for a Socialist Europe. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  13. ^ "Nottingham East". BBC News. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  14. ^ "Youngest Members of Parliament since 1979". parliament.uk. 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  15. ^ a b Eaton, George (20 February 2019). "Chris Leslie interview: Labour have 'massively underestimated' a new centrist party". New Statesman. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  16. ^ Canton, Naomi (14 December 2019). "15 Indian-origin MPs in new UK Parliament". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Nottingham East
2019–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by Baby of the House
2019–present 		Incumbent
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