Dame Diana Johnson

Dame Diana Johnson is the MP for Kingston upon Hull North, having first been elected in in 2005. Born in Northwich, Cheshire in 1966, she went onto read law at Brunel University before becoming a barrister in 1991. From 1994 until 2002, Johnson was a councillor in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, where she held the role of chair of social services. She unsuccessfully contested Brentwood and Ongar in the 2001 general election but won a majority in her current constituency four years later with a majority of 7,351. Having previously served as shadow minister for both home affairs and foreign affairs under Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, respectively, Johnson eventually resigned her latter post in June 2016 in protest of Corbyn’s leadership. Now chair of a number of all-party parliamentary groups – including human rights – Johnson received a damehood in the 2020 new year honours list for charitable and political service, not least as recognition for her campaigning on the issue of contaminated blood transfusions.