Name: Emily Frances Greenwood (née Reed)
Avatar: Bente Becker
Age: 36 (born 4th of October, 1982)
Sex: Female
Ethnicity: White British
Marital Status: Married to John Greenwood, with 2 children: Martha Greenwood (b. 2006) and Dominic "Dom" Greenwood (b. 2018)
Party: Labour Party
Primary Tribe: Open Labour
Secondary Tribes: Blue Labour, Tribune
Brexit Position: Remain, but accepted the result.
Constituency: Workington
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 for the Boltons Ward (2007-2010); ran for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2005; MP for Workington (2010-present); Shadow Minister for Schools (2016-2017); Shadow Environment Secretary (2017-2019); Leader of the Labour Party (2019-present) and Leader of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition (2019-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 in Bassenthwaite, 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 for the Boltons Ward 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. She was re-elected at the 2015 general election on a slightly reduced majority. After the 2015 Cumbria floods, Emily strongly advocated for improved climate adaptation and flood preparedness measures with a strong local component. Sensitive to the general political apathy and feelings of abandonment that would later contribute to a strong Brexit vote in her constituency, a strong desire to restore trust in politics became an increasingly strong political drive for Greenwood. This came to a head when, despite her best efforts to convince her constituents otherwise, her constituents voted to leave the EU. Taking some time in the aftermath to figure out why, Emily noticed that some of her constituents seemed less trusting of her because of her Remain stance, strengthening her resolve to regain their trust and that of people like them even further. She would be a strong advocate for respecting the will of the British people afterwards. The polarisation which led to the murder of her parliamentary colleague Jo Cox further kindled a strong concern for the rising divisions in British society.
Since having joined the Labour Party under Tony Blair's leadership, Emily has drifted leftward. She backed Andy Burnham for the Labour leadership in 2015, surprising observers who up until then had seen her as a generally New Labour MP. Despite numerous disagreements on policy with the newly-elected Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn (prominently over nuclear disarmament), she did note her appreciation for Corbyn's attempt to renew politics and his principled approach to the issues. Despite this, she backed Owen Smith's 2016 leadership challenge against Corbyn.
Not one for political games, though, when Corbyn offered her a role as Shadow Minister for Schools, she accepted. When asked about this, she openly admitted that though she had not been the leader's greatest supporter, she felt that "we're not doing the people back home in our constituencies any favours if we keep fighting eachother". She remained quite open about the need of the party to confront anti-semitism and to have a clearer Brexit position, and she opposed calls for a People's Vote, arguing that a new referendum would just reopen up old wounds and divisions. After the 2017 general election, she was appointed Shadow Environment Secretary, with many observers referencing her rural roots and her championing of flood defences after the 2015 floods. During this time, she took maternity leave while she was pregnant with her youngest child, Dom.
In the years since the 2017 election, Emily has increasingly spoken out about matters outside of her brief, advocating a new approach to politics and government after Brexit and standing against increasing political polarisation. In 2019, she published a book she had started writing while still on leave following Dom's birth, entitled A Britain for Everyone: A Social Contract for Post-Brexit Britain. In the book, which was a best-seller and was well-received, she argued that the perceived lack of control and trust in politics felt by many Britons was a result of a divisive form of politics and abandonment and distrust by the government. Pointing to the Windrush scandal, the Grenfell fire and the sense of abandonment among Leave voters before Brexit, she argued that a post-Brexit Britain would need to change the way the state and politicians related to people and communities. She argued for more localised, compassionate and interventionist politics to repair Britain's increasingly torn social fabric. "We need to stop dividing people into strivers and shirkers, haves and have-nots, the 52 and the 48 - because in the end, we're at our best when we're all working together and nobody gets left behind. It's time for a new social contract where we rediscover how we can help eachother, how government can be a force for good and shield to the vulnerable and how trust makes us stronger. Because if we don't bridge these divides and bring those people back in who have turned away in mistrust, how can we possibly hope to fix the big challenges of this century, like climate change?"
After the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn due to an anti-semitism scandal, Emily announced her candidacy to lead the Labour Party. After a heated leadership election which was marred by a bitter row over anti-semitism, she was elected over her opponent Hilda Harrington by a 52-48 margin, becoming the first woman elected to the post. At 36 years old, Emily ranks alongside William Hague of the Conservative Party as the youngest person to lead a major party since the war.
Emily is a member of Christians on the Left (formerly the Christian Socialist Movement).