Liz Kendall was first elected as the Labour Party MP for Leicester West in 2010, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 4,212.
The constituency of Leicester West is the least ethnically diverse of the three Leicester seats. Containing the local authority estates at Braunstone and Beaumont Leys, close to a third of the housing is owned by the local authority. A relatively deprived area, unemployment in this constituency has frequently been amongst the highest anywhere in the UK. This is Labour’s longest standing seat in Leicester having been held by the party ever since the Second World.
Kendall has served as Shadow Minister for Social Care since 2020. She was a Shadow health spokesperson between 2011 and 2015.
Kendall stood for the Labour leadership in 2015, and was widely seen as the Blairite candidate. She came fourth with less than 5% of the vote.
Kendall supported Owen Smith in his 2016 challenge to Jeremy Corbyn. In the 2020 Labour leadership election, she backed Jess Phillips.
Born in 1971, Kendall was educated at Cambridge University. Before her election to Parliament in 2010, Kendall was director of the Ambulance Service Network – the national body that represents NHS ambulance services. She was also Director of the Maternity Alliance charity.
Kendall has also previously spent time in think tank world. She worked at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), where she was the Associate Director for health, social care and children’s early years; and at the King’s Fund, where she was a researcher on the public health programme.
She was previously a Special Advisor to the former Labour Cabinet Minister, Patricia Hewitt, herself the former MP for Kendall’s Leicester West constituency.
Email: liz.kendall.mp@parliament.uk
Personal Website: www.lizkendall.org
Twitter: @Leicesterliz
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/LabourLiz
