Charlotte Nichols
MP
Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities
In office
12 November 2020 – 14 September 2021
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byJanet Daby
Succeeded byTaiwo Owatemi
Member of Parliament
for Warrington North
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byHelen Jones
Majority1,509 (3.2%)
Personal details
Born (1991-04-05) 5 April 1991
Romford, England
Political partyLabour
Alma materUniversity of Liverpool
Websitecharlottenicholsmp.com

Charlotte Louise Nichols[1] (born 5 April 1991)[2] is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Warrington North since the 2019 general election.

Early life

Nichols was born in Romford and grew up in Reading before moving to Liverpool where she studied politics at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 2013.[3]

She has three sisters and three step-siblings. Her father Ged Nichols is from Kirkby, Merseyside and is the General Secretary of the financial services trade union Accord he was appointed as the president of the TUC in 2020. Her mother is from East London.[4]

She became interested in politics at a young age and said in an interview she was obsessed with the Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd and the Speakers shouts of “Order”.[5]

As a teenager she had one of her earliest experiences of politics when she helped run after-school UK Youth Parliament activities with future Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May.[6]

Nichols was a women's officer for Young Labour.[7]

Before politics

After graduating from the University of Liverpool in 2013, Nichols worked in Salford for five years for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers. Supporting logistics workers from Warrington employed at Hermes (Now Evri), Yodel and XPO Logistics with pay and conditions negotiations.[8]

Nichols then went on to work for the GMB trade union as a national research and policy officer,[9] where she campaigned for better term and conditions for Amazon and Asda workers.[10]

While working for GMB, Nichols made the case for Government to invest in low-carbon nuclear technology.[11]

Political career

Nichols stood as the Labour Party candidate for Warrington North at the 2019 general election. She was elected with a majority of 1,509 votes holding the constituency for Labour.[12] There was a reduction in the overall majority which followed the broader trend of the 2019 election, where many northern, Labour voting constituencies voted Conservative for the first time the so called "Red Wall".[13]

In the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn, she served as the PPS to Tracy Brabin as Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for a brief period during the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, before being moved in the Shadow Cabinet of Sir Keir Starmer to being PPS to Emily Thornberry as Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade.[14] When Ruth Jones was promoted to Shadow Air Qualities Minister, Nichols replaced her as PPS to Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Louise Haigh.[15]

On 12 November 2020, Nichols was appointed Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities.[16] She stepped down from this role in September 2021, coinciding with the resignation of the Shadow Secretary of State Marsha de Cordova, citing personal reasons.[17]

Nichols supported Rebecca Long-Bailey in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, but nominated Emily Thornberry to broaden the field of candidates.[18][19]

In April 2021, Nichols apologised to the Traveller communities after she distributed a local election leaflet which pledged to deal with "Traveller incursions".[20] The leaflet had been circulated in the Orford ward of her constituency during the 2021 Local Elections, in response to encampments on the nearby Poole Park. Nichols apologised and issued a statement, saying: “I have spoken to the local Labour party, the leaflet has been withdrawn and the leaflet will be destroyed. I regret that this leaflet has been distributed in the town. The leaflet is not in line with my personal values or those of the Labour party." Nichols pledged to be "an ally" to the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community.[21]

Political positions

Politically she identifies as being on the left of the Labour Party[22] and is from a progressive trade union background.[23] Nichols supported Jeremy Corbyn in both the 2015 and the 2016 Labour Party leadership elections.[24]

Personal life

Nichols grew up in a mostly secular Catholic family with some Irish heritage. At the age of 22, Nichols started attending weekly services at the Manchester Reform Synagogue; after attending the services she claimed to have felt more peace than she ever had growing up as a Catholic.[25] She converted to Judaism in 2014 and celebrated her bat mitzvah on her 27th birthday.[26]

Since converting to Judaism, Nichols has faced ongoing abuse for her beliefs, including anti-Semitism from a Conservative Party council candidate for the 2021 Warrington Borough Council election. The candidate sent a message via Twitter to Nichols saying “Keep the Aryan race going”.[27]

In 2021, it was reported that Nichols has post-traumatic stress disorder, having been forced to cut a parliamentary visit to Gibraltar short following a "mental health episode".[28]

In 2022, Nichols opened up about her struggles with abusive messages and threats of violence she has faced after a BBC investigation found she was in the top 5 of backbench MPs to receive abusive and toxic tweets on Twitter.[29][30]

In a 2021 interview Nichols stated she identifies as bisexual.[31]

Controversies

Prior to the General Election of December 2019, Nichols used an article on the website LabourList to defend Corbyn's attendance at a Seder to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pesach, organised by the far-left Jewish diaspora group Jewdas.[32] The event was later criticized in article which appeared in The Times after allegations emerged that attendees had engaged in chants of "fuck the police" and "fuck the armies".[33]

In October 2019 Nichols tweeted that a group of S.S. Lazio fans who had been filmed making Nazi salutes in Glasgow should "get their heads kicked in". Nichols defended her comments in December, "These were people doing Nazi salutes on the streets of Britain... As a Jewish person whose grandfather fought in World War Two, ultimately sometimes I believe that fascism has to be physically confronted".[34][35]

An article published in the Daily Telegraph in 2019 reported that Nichols had described members of the Green Party as "bourgeois scab fucks" and told one Twitter user, "Hope you lose your virginity".[36]

References

  1. ↑ "Members Sworn". Parliament of the United Kingdom. 18 December 2019. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  2. ↑ Brunskill, Ian (19 March 2020). The Times guide to the House of Commons 2019 : the definitive record of Britain's historic 2019 General Election. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. p. 374. ISBN 978-0-00-839258-1. OCLC 1129682574.
  3. ↑ Nichols, Charlotte (6 November 2019). "Why I'm Standing for Warrington North". Archived from the original on 17 December 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  4. ↑ Nichols, Charlotte (11 November 2019). "I'm Not Running for Myself, I'm Running for My Class". Jacobin. Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  5. ↑ "New House Rules: Meet The 4 Women MPs Reshaping The Labour Party". British Vogue. 8 April 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  6. ↑ "New House Rules: Meet The 4 Women MPs Reshaping The Labour Party". British Vogue. 8 April 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  7. ↑ "MPs say plans to tackle Westminster sex assault claims 'too vague'". the Guardian. 5 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  8. ↑ "Why I'm Standing for Warrington North". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  9. ↑ "We spoke to women MPs about their experiences in British politics". JOE.co.uk. 8 March 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  10. ↑ "I'm Not Running for Myself, I'm Running for My Class". jacobin.com. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  11. ↑ "I'm Not Running for Myself, I'm Running for My Class". jacobin.com. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  12. ↑ "Warrington North". BBC News. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  13. ↑ "While the Conservatives are working with a tailwind in the Red Wall, in our blunder-prone system the local elections remain unpredictable". British Politics and Policy at LSE. 22 April 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  14. ↑ Nichols, Charlotte [@charlotte2153] (15 April 2020). "Getting lots of practice ahead of the "Digital Parliament" returning next week with meetings over Zoom, including today my first Shadow Frontbench meeting post-reshuffle as part of the Shadow International Trade team following my appointment as @EmilyThornberry's PPS!" (Tweet). Retrieved 15 April 2020 – via Twitter.
  15. ↑ Rodgers, Sienna (12 August 2020). "Ruth Jones promoted to replace Lloyd Russell-Moyle in Labour's Defra team". LabourList. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  16. ↑ Nichols, Charlotte [@charlotte2153] (11 November 2020). "Thank you Marsha!" (Tweet). Retrieved 12 November 2020 – via Twitter.
  17. ↑ Dhillon, Aran (16 September 2021). "Warrington North MP steps down as shadow minister". Warrington Guardian. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  18. ↑ "Rolling list: MP/MEP nominations for Labour leadership candidates". LabourList. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  19. ↑ Nichols, Charlotte [@charlotte2153] (10 January 2020). "I will be supporting Rebecca Long Bailey for leader. As both she & fellow North West MP Lisa Nandy have the required nominations, I have leant my nomination to Emily Thornberry to ensure Labour members in Warrington North (and elsewhere) can choose from a full field of candidates" (Tweet). Retrieved 11 January 2020 – via Twitter.
  20. ↑ Quinn, Ben (2 April 2021). "Labour to destroy local election leaflet carrying anti-Travellers pledge". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  21. ↑ "Labour to destroy local election leaflet carrying anti-Travellers pledge". the Guardian. 2 April 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  22. ↑ "Jewish Labour candidate: Party's antisemitism problem is 'more nuanced' than is alleged". www.thejc.com. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  23. ↑ "New House Rules: Meet The 4 Women MPs Reshaping The Labour Party". British Vogue. 8 April 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  24. ↑ "Jewish Labour candidate: Party's antisemitism problem is 'more nuanced' than is alleged". www.thejc.com. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  25. ↑ Fletcher, Olivia. "Charlotte Nichols could soon be UK Labour Party's only Jewish woman in parliament". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  26. ↑ Yossman, Karen (23 May 2018). "The zeal of a pro-Corbyn Jewish convert". The Spectator. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  27. ↑ Halliday, Josh (8 February 2021). "Tories urged to investigate Warrington branch over antisemitic tweet". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  28. ↑ "Row over 'drunk' MPs on Gibraltar military visit". BBC News. 11 November 2021. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  29. ↑ "Attacks on politicians whipped up by abuse, MP Charlotte Nichols says". BBC News. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  30. ↑ "Scale of abuse of politicians on Twitter revealed". BBC News. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  31. ↑ "We spoke to women MPs about their experiences in British politics". JOE.co.uk. 8 March 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  32. ↑ Nichols, Charlotte (3 April 2018). "Why I'm glad Corbyn came to the Jewdas Seder". LabourList. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  33. ↑ Correspondent, David Brown, Chief News. "Jeremy Corbyn defends joining in far-left group's Passover satire". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 5 May 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  34. ↑ McCann, Phil (17 December 2019). "New Labour MP defends 'heads kicked in' tweet". BBC News. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  35. ↑ "Newly-elected Jewish MP defends saying Nazis should get 'heads kicked in'". Jewish News. 16 December 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  36. ↑ Malnick, Edward (16 November 2019). "Labour candidate has repeatedly attacked critics of Jeremy Corbyn's approach to anti-Semitism". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
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