Yvette Cooper

The Right Honourable Yvette Cooper MP
Official portrait, 2024
Home Secretary
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 July 2024
Prime Minister	Keir Starmer
Preceded by	James Cleverly
Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee
In office 19 October 2016 – 1 December 2021
Preceded by	Keith Vaz
Succeeded by	Diana Johnson
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	James Purnell
Succeeded by	Iain Duncan Smith
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In office 24 January 2008 – 5 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Andy Burnham
Succeeded by	Liam Byrne
Junior ministerial offices Minister of State 2005–2008 Housing and Planning Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State 2003–2005 Regeneration and Regional Development 2002–2003 Lord Chancellor's Department 1999–2002 Public Health
Shadow cabinet portfolios 2021–2024 Home Secretary 2011–2015 Home Secretary 2010–2013 Women and Equalities 2010–2011 Foreign Secretary 2010–2010 Work and Pensions
Member of Parliament for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (2010–2024) Pontefract and Castleford (1997–2010)
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Geoffrey Lofthouse
Majority	6,630 (18.4%)
Personal details
Born	(1969-03-20) 20 March 1969 (age 55) Inverness, Scotland
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Ed Balls ​ (m. 1998)​
Children	3
Parent	Tony Cooper (father)
Education	Balliol College, Oxford (BA) Harvard University London School of Economics (MSc)
Signature
Website	Official website
Yvette Cooper's voice Cooper delivering an Amnesty International lecture on the refugee crisis in 2016

Yvette Cooper (born 20 March 1969) is a British politician who has served as Home Secretary since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, Cooper has been member of parliament (MP) for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley, previously Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, since 1997.

First elected to Parliament at the 1997 general election, Cooper was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in three departments under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1999 to 2005. She was promoted to Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2005, and was retained in the role when Gordon Brown was appointed prime minister in 2007. In 2008, she joined Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, before being promoted to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2009. After Labour's defeat at the 2010 general election, Cooper served in Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as shadow foreign secretary from 2010 to 2011. In 2011, her husband Ed Balls was promoted to shadow chancellor of the exchequer; Cooper replaced Balls as shadow home secretary and served until Labour lost the 2015 general election.

On 13 May 2015, Cooper announced she would run to be Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election following the resignation of Miliband.^[1] Cooper came third with 17.0% of the vote in the first round, losing to Jeremy Corbyn.^[2] Cooper subsequently resigned as shadow home secretary in September 2015. Cooper was the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee from 2016 to 2021.^[3] As a backbencher, Cooper repeatedly sought to extend Article 50 to delay Brexit. She became shadow home secretary again in Starmer's shadow cabinet in November 2021.

Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Cooper returned to government and was appointed home secretary by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in his ministry. She faced her first major domestic event, the riots across the country following the Southport stabbing, three weeks into her tenure.