Helen Hayes was elected as the Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood in 2015, being re-elected in 2019 with a majority of 27,840.
The constituency of Dulwich and West Norwood is found in inner south London and contains the communities of West Norwood, Gipsy Hill, Herne Hill, Dulwich and Brixton. This is an ethnically diverse seat in which a quarter of the electorate are of Afro-Caribbean descent. Social housing accounts for a third of the residential stock. In the 2016 EU referendum, some 78% of the local population voted to Remain in the EU, one of the highest of any seat in the UK. Although the Conservatives held Dulwich up until 1992, this has now become a very safe Labour seat, which was formerly represented in Parliament by the Labour cabinet minister, Tessa Jowell.
Helen Hayes was confirmed as a junior shadow Education spokesperson in the December 2021 Labour reshuffle.
Hayes served briefly as a Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office in 2020 under Keir Starmer, but resigned in order to abstain on the trade deal secured with the EU in late 2020. Passionately pro European, in Parliament, she previously voted against the triggering of Article 50 and in favour of a second referendum.
Born in 1974, Hayes was educated at Oxford University. Prior to her political career, she practised as an architect. After university, in 1998, she ran a town planning company, Town Centres Limited, following which she became a partner of Allies and Morrison, a London based architectural practice.
Hayes served as a councillor on the local Southwark Council between 2010 and 2016. She is married with two children.
Helen Hayes is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Adult Social Care; and Land Value Capture. She is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Parks and Green Spaces; Southern Rail; Air Pollution; Brain Tumours; and Kinship Care.
Email: helen.hayes.mp@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://www.helenhayes.org.uk/
Twitter: @helenhayes_
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/helenhayes4DaWN
