6 policy areas our new Shadow Chancellor is passionate about

New Labour leader Keir Starmer has appointed Anneliese Dodds to the senior role of Shadow Chancellor. As a new MP, only elected to parliament in 2017, her appointment represents the culmination of a meteoric rise through the ranks.

A strong media performer, considered competent across the party, she ticks the box as a unity candidate: while Dodds is not a Corbynite, her appointment has the support of left-wing predecessor McDonnell.

She has served as a Labour representative in the European parliament, and as shadow Treasury minister for the past three years in parliament. LabourList takes a quick look at some of the things she seems to be passionate about.

Corporation tax

The new Shadow Chancellor appeared on BBC Question Time during the general election campaign last year to deliver a robust defence of Labour’s plan to increase corporation tax.

In line with the party’s manifesto, Dodds argued that “those with the broadest shoulders” should be contributing more and so that the country can “properly fund our public services”.

Brexit

Dodds was an ardent advocate of the UK remaining in the EU. Not only did she campaign for Remain in the 2016 referendum, she continued to be a vocal opponent of Brexit afterwards. She supported the People’s Vote campaign and, like the new labour leader Starmer, spoke at some of their rallies.

On her website, she wrote that she has been “working hard to stop the government from pursuing its extreme, chaotic version of Brexit”. As recently as last week, she commented on the need for cooperation with EU partners over coronavirus and warned against a “chaotic exit” from the EU in the current economic climate.

MPs with second jobs

While standing to be the Labour MP for Reading East in the 2010 general election, Dodds wrote for LabourList about her support for the Kelly Report, which came out of the MPs’ expenses scandal.

The then prospective parliamentary candidate argued for the full implementation of the report’s recommendations, but also said that “more needs to be done to clamp down on moonlighting MPs who enjoy lucrative directorships”.

Housing

In 2009, she declared that the next Labour manifesto should include “more powers for local authorities to build in situations of housing need”, citing the need for stronger action to deal with the housing crisis.

Dodds also said that local councils needed a “greater ability to root out rogue landlords and maintain the balance of housing between family homes and houses in multiple occupation”.

In her maiden speech, she stated that “renters of homes have fewer rights than if they were renting a sofa or a fridge” and highlighted the way in which changes to housing benefit have forced people out of her constituency.

Climate change

The new Shadow Chancellor has been calling for Labour to include increased support for green technologies in its manifesto since before the 2010 general election.

While writing for LabourList in 2009, she said: “We need to see far more radical change if we’re to stop the climate change that is already leading to some of the severest floods and droughts in history.”

As an MP, she has joined climate strike marches and wrote last year: “We simply cannot return to business as usual in the next parliamentary session. We need to ensure the climate is front and centre of our politics.”

Stamping out tax avoidance

During her time in the European parliament, Dodds served on the committee on economic and monetary affairs, as well as a special committee investigating the Panama Papers. In 2014, she made an impassioned speech calling for international cooperation to tackle the issue.

The then MEP said: “Tax dodging, just like pollution, climate change and international crime, does not respect borders. In fact, it thrives in the mismatches that happen when countries don’t speak to one another – don’t cooperate – and so helpful little loopholes emerge.”

Since joining parliament and the shadow Treasury team, she has headed up the party’s strategy to combat tax avoidance, consistently calling for action and has written for LabourList criticising the government for leaving banks to decide how they regulate economic crime.

In his speech at the last Labour Party conference, McDonnell lauded Dodds for “masterminding” the party’s approach, and stated that she had “found that magic money tree in the Cayman Islands, and she is digging it up and bringing it here”.

In an article for PoliticsHome in February this year, Dodds wrote: “Tax avoidance and evasion is now a stain on our country’s global reputation, and a drain on our public services.”