Jenny Chapman

The Right Honourable The Baroness Chapman of Darlington
Official portrait, 2021
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Latin America and Caribbean
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 July 2024
Prime Minister	Keir Starmer
Preceded by	David Rutley
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Life Peerage
Assumed office 1 March 2021
Member of Parliament for Darlington
In office 6 May 2010 – 6 November 2019
Preceded by	Alan Milburn
Succeeded by	Peter Gibson
Shadow portfolios 2023–2024 Treasury 2021–2024 Minister of State at the Cabinet Office 2023–2023 Business and Trade 2022–2023 Education 2021–2023 Justice 2021–2022 International Trade, Whip 2016–2019 Exiting the European Union 2016–2016 Children and Early Years 2011–2016 Prisons
Member of Darlington Council for Cockerton West
In office 3 May 2007 – May 2010
Succeeded by	Jan Cossins
Personal details
Born	Jennifer Chapman September 1973 Surrey, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Nick Smith ​ (m. 2014)​
Alma mater	Brunel University (BSc) Durham University (MA)

Jennifer Chapman, Baroness Chapman of Darlington (born September 1973) is a British politician and life peer who has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Latin America and Caribbean since July 2024.^[1][2] A member of the Labour Party, she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 2010 to 2019.

Chapman was political secretary to the Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer, from 2020 to 2021. As Shadow Minister of State at the Cabinet Office from 2021 to 2023, she served as a member of the shadow cabinet. She was appointed Chancellor of Teesside University in 2023.

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 and Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College.^[3][4][5] before completing a BSc in psychology at Brunel University in 1996, and later took an MA in archaeology at Durham University in 2004.^[5] She had work placements attached to prison psychology departments whilst studying for her undergraduate degree.^[6]

Chapman worked as constituency office manager for Darlington Labour MP Alan Milburn. After a career break to have children, she returned to politics at Darlington Borough Council when she was elected as borough councillor for the Cockerton West ward in 2007.^[7]

House of Commons

In November 2009, Chapman was shortlisted as one of four candidates to succeed Milburn as Labour's parliamentary candidate for Darlington on an open shortlist, i.e. not an all-women shortlist.^[7] She was selected to stand for parliament by the local constituency party the following month. She was elected Darlington MP in the 2010 general election with a majority of 3,388.^[8] As a result of her election victory, she decided to stand down as a councillor.^[9]

Chapman made her maiden speech in Parliament on 7 June 2010, during which she asked for social network services to be regulated to stop paedophiles. She also backed the Building Schools for the Future programme.^[10] During her time as an MP, she served as a vice-chair of Progress^[11] and campaigned to remain in the European Union in the 2016 EU membership referendum.^[12]

In 2011, Chapman was appointed as Shadow Minister for Prisons.^[13] 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.^[13] 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.^[14] She supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the subsequent leadership election.^[15] She later rejoined the Opposition frontbench as Shadow Minister for Exiting the European Union.^[16]

Chapman was one of the many Labour MPs to be defeated at the 2019 general election, losing her seat to Conservative Peter Gibson following 27 years of Labour holding the constituency.^[17]

After losing her seat, she became chair of Keir Starmer'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.^[18][19]

House of Lords

In August 2020, The Telegraph reported that Chapman was "likely" to be nominated for a peerage by Starmer,^[20] and it was announced in December 2020 that she would join the House of Lords as part of the 2020 Political Honours.^[21] In February 2021, Chapman was made Baroness Chapman of Darlington, of Darlington in the County of Durham, and made her maiden speech on 22 March 2021.^[22]

Chapman was removed as Starmer's political director in June 2021, after what The Times referred to as "months of friction" with Labour MPs, and was re-appointed to the frontbench as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, shadowing Lord Frost at Task Force Europe and the Cabinet Office.^[23][24][25]

In February 2022, Chapman won a libel case against The Sunday Times chief political commentator Tim Shipman, resulting in Chapman receiving substantial damages and legal costs. In May 2021, Shipman had posted two tweets on Twitter, one attributed to an unnamed Labour Party source, that the court determined meant he had falsely suggested Chapman had a "secret adulterous relationship" with Labour leader Keir Starmer. Shipman had deleted one of his tweets soon after, but it had already been extensively republished.^[26][27]

In August 2023, Chapman was announced as the new Chancellor of Teesside University.^[28]

Personal life

She married fellow Labour MP Nick Smith in July 2014.^[29]

References

1. "Ministerial Appointments: July 2024". GOV.UK. Retrieved 19 July 2024.
2. "Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Latin America and Caribbean) – GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
3. "No. 59418". The London Gazette. 13 May 2010. p. 8741.
4. "Jenny Chapman MP". Westminster parliamentary record. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
5. "Chapman, Jennifer, (born 25 Sept. 1973)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u251480. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
6. James, Erwin (25 February 2015). "The would-be minister with inside knowledge of the prisons beat". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
7. Pyrah, Lauren (20 November 2009). "Labour shortlist confirmed". The Northern Echo. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
8. "Darlington". BBC News. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
9. "Four contest Darlington Borough Council seat". The Northern Echo. 11 June 2010. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
10. Cook, Paul (8 June 2010). "New MP calls for tighter controls on sex offenders". The Northern Echo. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
11. "Chair and Vice-chairs". Progress. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
12. "EU vote: Where the cabinet and other MPs stand". BBC News. 22 June 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
13. Moss, Richard (10 October 2011). "North East MP Jenny Chapman handed shadow prison role". BBC News. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
14. "Darlington MP Jenny Chapman resigns from education team". Archived from the original on 22 November 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
15. "Full list of MPs and MEPs backing challenger Owen Smith". LabourList. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
16. "Corbyn appoints 21 frontbenchers – LabourList". 9 October 2016. Archived from the original on 22 November 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
17. "General election 2019: Tories take five Labour heartland seats". BBC News. 13 December 2019.
18. "Labour leadership frontrunner Starmer hires ex-Corbyn aide as key strategic advisor". ITV News. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
19. Pogrund, Gabriel (19 July 2020). "Keir Starmer's team — haven't we seen something like this before?". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
20. Hope, Christopher (15 August 2020). "Tom Watson in line to receive peerage after nomination by Sir Keir Starmer". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
21. "Political Peerages 2020". Gov.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
22. "Crown Office". www.thegazette.co.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
23. "Sir Keir Starmer's closest adviser Baroness Chapman moved to new position". BBC News. 22 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
24. Maguire, Patrick; Zeffman, Henry (22 June 2021). "Keir Starmer forced to sideline top aide Baroness Chapman". The Times. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
25. Elgot, Jessica; Stewart, Heather (22 June 2021). "Labour leader Keir Starmer axes chief aide Jenny Chapman". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
26. "Sunday Times journalist Tim Shipman pays 'substantial' damages to shadow minister over tweet". Press Gazette. 23 February 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
27. Glass, Jess (22 February 2022). "Shadow minister given 'substantial' sum over false Starmer affair claim". The Standard. London. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
28. "Ex-Darlington MP baroness Jenny Chapman made Teesside uni chancellor". BBC News. 24 August 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
29. Jim Shannon (9 April 2014). "Chapman-Smith marriage". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. col. 308. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017.

External links

• Official website
• Old website (archived)
• 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 Alan Milburn	Member of Parliament for Darlington 2010–2019	Succeeded by Peter Gibson