Charlotte Nichols

Charlotte Nichols MP
Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities
In office 12 November 2020 – 14 September 2021
Leader	Keir Starmer
Preceded by	Janet Daby
Succeeded by	Taiwo Owatemi
Member of Parliament for Warrington North
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 December 2019
Preceded by	Helen Jones
Majority	9,190 (23.0%)[1]
Personal details
Born	(1991-04-05) 5 April 1991 (age 33) Romford, England
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	University of Liverpool
Website	charlottenicholsmp.com

Charlotte Louise Nichols^[2] (born 5 April 1991)^[3] is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Warrington North since 2019.

Early life and education

Charlotte Nichols was born on 5 April 1991 in Romford, Greater London, and grew up in Reading. She has three sisters and three step-siblings. Her father Ged Nichols is from Kirkby, Merseyside and is the General Secretary of the financial services trade union Accord. He was appointed as the president of the TUC in 2020. Her mother is from East London.^[4]

Nichols became interested in politics at a young age: she said in an interview that she was obsessed with Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd, and the Speaker's shouts of "Order".^[5]

As a teenager, Nichols had one of her earliest experiences of politics when she helped run after-school UK Youth Parliament activities with future Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May.^[6]

Nichols studied politics at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 2013.^[7]

Career

After graduation, Nichols worked in Salford for five years for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, supporting logistics workers from Warrington employed at Hermes (now Evri), Yodel and XPO, Inc. with pay and conditions negotiations.^[8]

Nichols then went on to work for the GMB trade union as a national research and policy officer,^[9] where she campaigned for better term and conditions for Amazon and Asda workers.^[10]

While working for GMB, Nichols made the case for Government to invest in low-carbon nuclear technology.^[11]

Nichols supported Jeremy Corbyn in both the 2015 and the 2016 Labour Party leadership elections.^[12]

Parliamentary career

Nichols was elected to Parliament at the 2019 general election as the Labour Party MP for Warrington North with 44.2% of the vote and a majority of 1,509 votes.^[13][14]

In the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn, Nichols served as the PPS to Tracy Brabin as Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for a brief period, before being moved in the Shadow Cabinet of Sir Keir Starmer to being PPS to Emily Thornberry as Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade.^[15]

Nichols supported Rebecca Long-Bailey in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, but nominated Emily Thornberry to broaden the field of candidates.^[16][17]

When Ruth Jones was promoted to Shadow Air Qualities Minister, Nichols replaced her as PPS to Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Louise Haigh.^[18]

On 12 November 2020, Nichols was appointed Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities.^[19] She stepped down from this role in September 2021, coinciding with the resignation of the Shadow Secretary of State Marsha de Cordova, citing personal reasons.^[20]

In April 2021, Nichols apologised to the Traveller communities after she distributed a local election leaflet which pledged to deal with "Traveller incursions".^[21] The leaflet had been circulated in the Orford ward of her constituency during the 2021 local elections, in response to encampments on the nearby Poole Park. Nichols apologised and issued a statement, saying: “I have spoken to the local Labour party, the leaflet has been withdrawn and the leaflet will be destroyed. I regret that this leaflet has been distributed in the town. The leaflet is not in line with my personal values or those of the Labour party." Nichols pledged to be "an ally" to the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community.^[22]

At the 2024 general election, Nichols was re-elected to Parliament as MP for Warrington North with an increased vote share of 46.8% and an increased majority of 9,190.^[23]

Controversies

Prior to the general election of December 2019, Nichols used an article on the website LabourList to defend Corbyn's attendance at a Seder to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pesach, organised by the far-left Jewish diaspora group Jewdas.^[24] The event was later criticised in article which appeared in The Times, after allegations emerged that attendees had engaged in chants of "fuck the police" and "fuck the armies".^[25]

In October 2019, Nichols tweeted that a group of S.S. Lazio fans who had been filmed making Nazi salutes in Glasgow should "get their heads kicked in". Nichols defended her comments in December that year: "These were people doing Nazi salutes on the streets of Britain... As a Jewish person whose grandfather fought in World War Two, ultimately sometimes I believe that fascism has to be physically confronted".^[26][27]

An article published in The Daily Telegraph in 2019 reported that Nichols had described members of the Green Party as "bourgeois scab fucks" and told one Twitter user, "Hope you lose your virginity".^[28]

Personal life

Nichols grew up in a mostly secular Catholic family with some Irish heritage. At the age of 22, Nichols started attending weekly services at the Manchester Reform Synagogue; after attending the services, she claimed to have felt more peace than she ever had growing up.^[29] She converted to Judaism in 2014 and celebrated her bat mitzvah on her 27th birthday.^[30]

Since converting to Judaism, Nichols has faced ongoing abuse for her beliefs, including anti-Semitism from a Conservative Party council candidate for the 2021 Warrington Borough Council election. The candidate sent a message via Twitter to Nichols saying "Keep the Aryan race going".^[31]

In 2021, it was reported that Nichols has post-traumatic stress disorder, having been forced to cut a parliamentary visit to Gibraltar short following a "mental health episode".^[32]

In 2022, Nichols opened up about her struggles with abusive messages and threats of violence she has faced, after a BBC investigation found that she was in the top 5 backbench MPs for receiving abusive and toxic tweets on Twitter.^[33][34]

In a 2021 interview, Nichols stated that she identifies as bisexual.^[35]

References

1. "Warrington North results General election 2024". BBC News. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
2. "Members Sworn". Parliament of the United Kingdom. 18 December 2019. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
3. Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. p. 374. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
4. Nichols, Charlotte (11 November 2019). "I'm Not Running for Myself, I'm Running for My Class". Jacobin. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
5. "New House Rules: Meet The 4 Women MPs Reshaping The Labour Party". British Vogue. 8 April 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
6. "New House Rules: Meet The 4 Women MPs Reshaping The Labour Party". British Vogue. 8 April 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
7. Nichols, Charlotte (6 November 2019). "Why I'm Standing for Warrington North". Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
8. "Why I'm Standing for Warrington North". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
9. "We spoke to women MPs about their experiences in British politics". JOE.co.uk. 8 March 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
10. "I'm Not Running for Myself, I'm Running for My Class". jacobin.com. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
11. "I'm Not Running for Myself, I'm Running for My Class". jacobin.com. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
12. "Jewish Labour candidate: Party's antisemitism problem is 'more nuanced' than is alleged". www.thejc.com. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
13. "Warrington North". BBC News. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
14. "Statement of Persons Nominated" (PDF).
15. Nichols, Charlotte [@charlotte2153] (15 April 2020). "Getting lots of practice ahead of the "Digital Parliament" returning next week with meetings over Zoom, including today my first Shadow Frontbench meeting post-reshuffle as part of the Shadow International Trade team following my appointment as @EmilyThornberry's PPS!" (Tweet). Retrieved 15 April 2020 – via Twitter.
16. "Rolling list: MP/MEP nominations for Labour leadership candidates". LabourList. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
17. Nichols, Charlotte [@charlotte2153] (10 January 2020). "I will be supporting Rebecca Long Bailey for leader. As both she & fellow North West MP Lisa Nandy have the required nominations, I have leant my nomination to Emily Thornberry to ensure Labour members in Warrington North (and elsewhere) can choose from a full field of candidates" (Tweet). Retrieved 11 January 2020 – via Twitter.
18. Rodgers, Sienna (12 August 2020). "Ruth Jones promoted to replace Lloyd Russell-Moyle in Labour's Defra team". LabourList. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
19. Nichols, Charlotte [@charlotte2153] (11 November 2020). "Thank you Marsha!" (Tweet). Retrieved 12 November 2020 – via Twitter.
20. Dhillon, Aran (16 September 2021). "Warrington North MP steps down as shadow minister". Warrington Guardian. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
21. Quinn, Ben (2 April 2021). "Labour to destroy local election leaflet carrying anti-Travellers pledge". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
22. "Labour to destroy local election leaflet carrying anti-Travellers pledge". The Guardian. 2 April 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
23. "Warrington North - General election results 2024". BBC News.
24. Nichols, Charlotte (3 April 2018). "Why I'm glad Corbyn came to the Jewdas Seder". LabourList. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
25. Brown, David. "Jeremy Corbyn defends joining in far-left group's Passover satire". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
26. McCann, Phil (17 December 2019). "New Labour MP defends 'heads kicked in' tweet". BBC News. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
27. "Newly-elected Jewish MP defends saying Nazis should get 'heads kicked in'". Jewish News. 16 December 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
28. Malnick, Edward (16 November 2019). "Labour candidate has repeatedly attacked critics of Jeremy Corbyn's approach to anti-Semitism". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
29. Fletcher, Olivia. "Charlotte Nichols could soon be UK Labour Party's only Jewish woman in parliament". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
30. Yossman, Karen (23 May 2018). "The zeal of a pro-Corbyn Jewish convert". The Spectator. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
31. Halliday, Josh (8 February 2021). "Tories urged to investigate Warrington branch over antisemitic tweet". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
32. "Row over 'drunk' MPs on Gibraltar military visit". BBC News. 11 November 2021. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
33. "Attacks on politicians whipped up by abuse, MP Charlotte Nichols says". BBC News. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
34. "Scale of abuse of politicians on Twitter revealed". BBC News. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
35. "We spoke to women MPs about their experiences in British politics". JOE.co.uk. 8 March 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

External links

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Helen Jones	Member of Parliament for Warrington North 2019–present	Incumbent