Yvette Cooper

Yvette Cooper (born 20 March 1969) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford since 2010, having served as the MP for Pontefract and Castleford since 1997. A member of the Labour Party, Cooper served as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2010 to 2011 and Shadow Home Secretary from 2011 to 2015. Cooper was Minister of State for Housing and Planning under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. She served in the Cabinet between 2008 and 2010 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and then as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. After Labour lost the 2010 general election, Cooper served in Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 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.