Who is Anna Turley, the new chair of the Labour Party?

Anna Turley has become the latest MP to take on the role of Labour Party chair, following in the footsteps of Harriet Harman, Angela Rayner and Tom Watson.

Turley, the Labour Co-op MP for Redcar, was first elected in 2015 but lost her seat at the 2019 general election – before reclaiming it last July.

Before entering Parliament, she served as a civil servant in the Home Office and worked as a special adviser in the Department of Work and Pensions and the Cabinet Office.

Turley served briefly as a shadow minister in Jeremy Corbyn’s first shadow cabinet before becoming a staunch critic of his, describing him as being “completely out of touch with reality” during the 2016 leadership election campaign.

Prior to the 2019 general election, she served as chair of the Co-operative Party.

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After losing her seat in Westminster, she helped run a foodbank during the pandemic and served as a sports consultant to the Betting and Gaming Council – the gambling industry’s main lobby group, writing a sponsored piece in the New Statesman arguing against limits on betting, claiming such a move would alienate Red Wall voters. She later became an associate director at political lobbying firm Arden Strategies, before winning an open contest to be selected as the Labour candidate for her old constituency of Redcar.

Following her return to Parliament, she was appointed as a government whip.

Turley becomes the fourth party chair to serve under Keir Starmer’s leadership, after Angela Rayner, Anneliese Dodds and Ellie Reeves.

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