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Who is new shadow housing secretary Thangam Debbonaire?
Here is all we know so far about the new shadow housing secretary
Thangam Debbonaire may feel she has big shoes to fill, as her predecessor John Healey spent almost five years in the role of shadow housing secretary.
The appointment of the Bristol West MP is a further indication of the respect Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has for her, having recruited her as shadow minister for exiting the European Union in January this year.
She will now assume the role vacated by Mr Healey, who served as housing minister in government during the last years of Gordon Brown’s tenure as prime minister, and in shadow housing roles since 2015.
A relative parliamentary newcomer, 53-year-old Ms Debbonaire first became an MP in the 2015 general election when she ousted Liberal Democrat Stephen Williams, who had held the Bristol West seat for 10 years.
She then went on to become shadow arts and culture minister in January 2016 under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
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But that appointment became something of a farce. Ms Debbonaire learned that she had been given the role from a journalist, only to be told by Mr Corbyn six weeks later that it was a mistake.
After discussions with the party leader, Ms Debbonaire was eventually reinstated and remained in post until she resigned in the wake of the EU referendum result, claiming that Mr Corbyn would not be able to win over the population in any subsequent general election.
Despite endorsing Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election, she was appointed shadow whip in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet after he defeated Mr Smith.
During this period Ms Debbonaire was receiving radiotherapy treatment following a breast cancer diagnosis.
According to her voting record, in 2018 she voted against the ‘bedroom tax’, although her record on housing in general is limited.
In March 2018 she contributed a written question to then-housing secretary Sajid Javid, enquiring about “what recent representations his department has received on the advertising of private property lettings explicitly to exclude people in receipt of housing benefit”.
Prior to becoming an MP, Ms Debbonaire was a professional cellist and worked for various charities focusing on domestic violence. She has co-written two books on the subject of domestic violence.
In a debate on the Domestic Abuse Bill last October, she said: “I am, as I have called myself many times, a professional feminist, and have been for 32 years; and I have been involved in domestic violence work for 32 years.”
She also chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Perpetrators of Domestic Abuse.
Who is new shadow communities secretary Steve Reed?
Steve Reed has been appointed shadow communities and local government secretary, the most senior position he has held so far in his political career.
The Croydon North MP started out as a Labour councillor in Lambeth. He became council leader in 2006 when Labour took the borough back from a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition and stayed in the role until 2012.
He has served as a shadow minister in several departments, including education; digital, culture, media and sport (twice); communities and local government; and home affairs.
A major fire safety campaigner, Mr Reed has backed Inside Housing’s End Our Cladding Scandal campaign.
