Rachel Hopkins

Rachel Hopkins held Luton South for Labour at the 2019 general election, defeating Gavin Shuker, the incumbent MP who left the Labour Party earlier that year to form Change UK. She is the daughter of Kelvin Hopkins, the MP for the neighbouring Luton North constituency from 1997 to 2019, and – like her father – has been critical of the European Union. Prior to becoming an MP, Hopkins spent time working at the Electoral Commission and in human resources at the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. In 2011, she was elected as a councillor on Luton Borough Council, where she served as the cabinet member for public health. Hopkins is known to be on the left of the Labour party and is a member of Labour’s Socialist Campaign Group. Hopkins currently serves on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee as well as the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. She recently served as parliamentary private secretary to Marsha de Cordova (the shadow secretary for women and equalities), however resigned in October 2020 in order to vote against the Labour whip in opposition to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill.