Lucy Maria Powell (born 10 October 1974) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Education since 2026 and as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2025. She served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from July 2024 to September 2025. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Central since 2012. Powell has been described as belonging to the soft left of the Labour Party.
Born in Manchester, Powell attended Parrs Wood High School. She went on to study at Somerville College, Oxford for one year then King's College London, before working in campaigning and PR roles for Britain in Europe, NESTA and the Labour Party. Powell was elected to the House of Commons at the 2012 Manchester Central by-election as MP for Manchester Central. She was re-elected at the 2015 UK general election and campaigned to remain in the European Union (EU) in the 2016 Brexit referendum. She was re-elected in both the 2017 and 2019 general elections.
Powell held several shadow cabinet roles under both Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, and was vice-chair of the 2015 election campaign for the former. Having left Corbyn's frontbench team during the 2016 British shadow cabinet resignations, she rejoined the Starmer shadow cabinet in 2020, holding portfolios in business, housing and culture. In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was appointed as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. Following Labour's victory in the 2024 UK general election, Powell was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council in the first Starmer cabinet. She was removed from the government as a part of the 2025 British cabinet reshuffle and returned to the backbenches.
Following the resignation of Angela Rayner, Powell put her name forward as a candidate for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party on 9 September 2025. She defeated Bridget Phillipson on 25 October 2025, holding the position of Deputy Leader for the remainder of Starmer's leadership and subsequently under Andy Burnham. She returned to Cabinet under Burnham as Education Secretary in July 2026.
Lucy Powell was born in Moss Side, Manchester. She attended Beaver Road Primary School and Parrs Wood High School in Didsbury, and then studied A-levels at Xaverian College. She studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, having been one of several pupils in her year at Xaverian to receive an offer to the University of Oxford although she subsequently claimed otherwise. However, she left Oxford after one year and transferred in to the second year of the chemistry degree at King's College London.
Powell began her career working as a parliamentary assistant for Beverley Hughes, after having worked at the Labour Party Headquarters in Millbank Tower during the 1997 general election campaign. She joined the pro-euro and pro-EU Treaty pressure group Britain in Europe (BiE), originally in a public relations role and later as head of regional campaigning. She replaced Simon Buckby as Campaign Director of BiE. In this capacity, she worked with Chris Patten, Neil Kinnock, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander.
After BiE was wound down in June 2005 because of the referendum "No" votes in France and the Netherlands, she worked for the non-departmental public body or quango NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), initially in a public affairs role and later to establish and manage the Manchester Innovation Fund project. From May 2010 to September 2010, Powell managed Ed Miliband's successful campaign for the 2010 Labour Party leadership election. She then was Ed Miliband's acting and later deputy chief of staff from September 2010 to April 2012.
Early opposition career (2010–2016)
Powell was selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Manchester Withington in April 2007. At the 2010 UK general election, she stood in Manchester Withington, coming second with 40.5% of the vote behind the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP John Leech. Powell was elected as MP for Manchester Central at the 2012 Manchester Central by-election, winning the election with 69.1% of the vote and a majority of 9,936 votes. Powell first joined the opposition frontbench in October 2013 as Shadow Childcare and Early Years Minister, and entered the Miliband shadow cabinet in November 2014 as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office.
Powell was appointed vice-chair of the 2015 UK general election campaign by Ed Miliband, in which Labour suffered a net loss of 26 seats, including a net loss of 40 seats in Scotland. She was heavily criticised for apparently suggesting that Labour's election pledges were liable to be broken: in talking about the EdStone, she commented: "I don't think anyone is suggesting that the fact that he's carved them into stone means that he is absolutely not going to break them or anything like that." She said that she had been quoted out of context. She was responsible for Ed Miliband's interview with Russell Brand, described as a PR blunder. As a result of these actions coupled to the result, Tanya Gold, writing for The Sunday Times, described her as "discredited". In response to the result, Powell stated, "I bear my share of responsibility in this".
Powell was re-elected as MP for Manchester Central at the 2015 general election with a decreased vote share of 61.3% and an increased majority of 21,639. In the subsequent 2015 Labour Party leadership election, she nominated Andy Burnham. On 13 September 2015, Powell was appointed as Shadow Education Secretary by Jeremy Corbyn, succeeding Tristram Hunt. As Shadow Education Secretary, she argued for bringing free schools and academies under Local Education Authority control.
Opposition backbencher (2016–2020)
Powell resigned from the Shadow Cabinet on 26 June 2016, along with dozens of shadow cabinet colleagues unhappy with Corbyn's leadership. She supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election. At the snap 2017 UK general election, Powell was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 77.4% and an increased majority of 31,445. Upon receiving the exit poll for the results of election, Powell's reaction had been one of surprise and disbelief as polls indicated a hung parliament, suggesting that Labour had performed much better than anticipated. Footage from that night shows her gasping in astonishment at the results. The day after the election she stated that, "We did get it wrong on Jeremy Corbyn. I'm really glad that we got it wrong."
During her period on the backbenches, Powell focused on issues including online harms and digital regulation, co-founding the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Media and calling for stronger safeguards against harmful content and misinformation. She also introduced a Private Member's Bill on online hate speech, proposing tighter controls on tech companies' responsibilities for harmful content. Powell took an interest in housing and local government, campaigning on cladding and building safety issues after the Grenfell Tower fire, and raising concerns about urban regeneration projects in Manchester. She also sat on the Commons Science and Technology Committee, contributing to inquiries into data use, digital policy, and the impact of automation.
In September 2017, the political commentator Iain Dale placed Powell at Number 81 in The 100 Most Influential People on the Left. At the 2019 UK general election, Powell was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 70.4% and a decreased majority of 29,089. Powell endorsed Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.
Return to the opposition frontbench (2020–2024)
On 9 April 2020, Powell rejoined the Labour frontbench when she was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers by new party leader Keir Starmer. In the May 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle, she was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, succeeding Thangam Debbonaire. During her tenure, she set out Labour's housing priorities at the party conference, including plans to expand the construction of council and social housing, establish a Building Works Agency to oversee building safety, and reform compulsory purchase rules to enable local authorities to acquire land for development. She also argued that housing policy should prioritise affordability and security rather than investment value.