Name: Emily Frances Greenwood (née Reed)
Avatar: Bente Becker
Age: 32 (born 4th of October, 1982)
Sex: Female
Ethnicity: White British
Marital Status: Married to John Greenwood, with one child: Martha Greenwood (b. 2006)
Party: Labour Party
Political Outlook: Soft left Labour, from an early Blairite reputation; Christian socialist with a communitarian streak, genuinely concerned about declining trust in politics.
Constituency: Copeland
Year Elected: 2010
Education: Attended Langdale C of E Primary School, then at the Keswick School in the Lakes. Studied PPE (Bachelor) and History (Master) at Churchill College, Cambridge.
Career: History teacher at the Keswick School; volunteer with the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association
Political Career: Allerdale Borough Councillor (2007-2010); ran for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005; MP for Copeland (2010-present); Shadow Minister for Schools (2013-present)
Emily Greenwood (née Reed) is a British politician and the Labour Member of Parliament for Workington. Since 2019, she has been serving as Leader of the Labour Party, the first woman elected to that position. She was born in the small village of Chapel Stile in Great Langdale in the Lake District, the daughter and youngest child of the vicar, the Rev. Walter Reed, and his wife, Louisa Reed (née White). Growing up in the Lakes, from a very early age Emily learned to appreciate the idyllic surroundings and sense of community in the village. Being educated first at the Langdale C of E Primary School in Chapel Stile and then at the Keswick School, she was instilled with a thoroughly Christian ethic that came to form the basis of her politics. Inspired by the politics of Tony Blair, she joined the Labour Party in 1998 at age 16 despite the generally Conservative leanings of her family.
An excellent student, Emily was admitted to Churchill College, Cambridge, where she studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics. She graduated with a Master's Degree in History from that same college in 2003. She returned home to the Lake District, starting as a history teacher at her old secondary school, the Keswick School. She reconnected with many of her childhood friends, including her childhood sweetheart John Greenwood. The two got back together shortly after and married in late 2005, moving into John's grandparents' old home on the outskirts of Keswick, which he converted into a bed and breakfast. Their daughter Martha was born 6 months later.
Politics and social engagement never left Emily's life. She got engaged with a number of environmental initiatives to preserve the Lakes, including a stint at the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association (though she was never on the rescue team due to her fear of heights). Active in the local Labour Party since she returned home especially to campaign for the 2001 election in a number of constituencies in the area, she allowed herself to be convinced to run for Westmorland and Lonsdale, which contains her childhood home of Chapel Stile, in 2005. She was elected to Allerdale Borough Council in 2007. Her activities for charity and on the local council resulted in her selection from an all-women shortlist as Labour's PPC for Workington in the run-up to the 2010 election, at which she was elected Member of Parliament, the first female MP to represent a Cumbria constituency.
A local with a strong focus on helping people, Emily focused her attention on her constituency, advocating for local issues and taking a lot of time to listen to her constituents' concerns. A former teacher, she was made Shadow Minister for Schools in the 2013 reshuffle. She was re-elected at the 2015 general election on an increased majority. She has been an increasingly vocal advocate for a stronger green agenda. Sensitive to the general political apathy and feelings of abandonment in her constituency, a strong desire to restore trust in politics became an increasingly strong political drive for Greenwood.
Since having joined the Labour Party under Tony Blair's leadership, Emily has drifted leftward. Emily is a member of Christians on the Left (formerly the Christian Socialist Movement).