Bell Ribeiro-Addy

Bell Ribeiro-Addy replaced former Labour frontbencher and one-time leadership candidate, Chuka Umunna who left the party to co-found Change UK. Ribeiro-Addy is a former chief of staff to Hackney MP and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott. Her selection in the seat of Streatham was the result of a controversial contest in which the popular local activist Maxine James was kept off the ballot. After her election, Ribeiro-Addy had been a key staffer within the upper echelons of the party under Corbyn and told the Streatham constituency Labour party – after her selection as candidate – that reducing youth violence would be her central legislative priority. She comfortably defeated Liberal Democrat rival Helen Thompson, winning the Labour safe seat with a majority of 17,690. In 2019, she was appointed as shadow immigration minister but was not kept on in the role under Keir Starmer’s leadership: Ribeiro-Addy had supported Rebecca Long-Bailey’s campaign to succeed Corbyn as party leader. In 2020, she warned that youth centres and organisations were facing a breaking point as a result of measures tackling the coronavirus pandemic.