Rebecca Long-Bailey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rebecca Long-Bailey
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Official portrait, 2017
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| Shadow Secretary of State for Education | |
| In office 6 April 2020 – 25 June 2020 |
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| Leader | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Angela Rayner |
| Succeeded by | Kate Green |
| Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | |
| In office 9 February 2017 – 6 April 2020 |
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| Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
| Preceded by | Clive Lewis |
| Succeeded by | Ed Miliband |
| Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 27 June 2016 – 9 February 2017 |
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| Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
| Preceded by | Seema Malhotra |
| Succeeded by | Peter Dowd |
| Shadow Minister for the Treasury | |
| In office 18 September 2015 – 27 June 2016 |
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| Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
| Member of Parliament for Salford Salford and Eccles (2015–2024) |
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| Assumed office 7 May 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Hazel Blears |
| Majority | 15,101 (38.0%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Rebecca Roseanne Long
22 September 1979 Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England |
| Political party | Independent |
| Other political affiliations |
Labour Party (2014–2024; suspended and whip withdrawn) Socialist Campaign Group |
| Spouse | Stephen Bailey |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | Manchester Metropolitan University |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Solicitor |
Rebecca Roseanne Long-Bailey (born 22 September 1979) is a British politician and solicitor. A solicitor is a type of lawyer who gives legal advice and represents clients. She used to be a member of the Labour Party but is now an independent Member of Parliament (MP).
She has been an MP for Salford (and before that, Salford and Eccles) since 2015. As an MP, she represents her local area in the UK Parliament.
Rebecca Long-Bailey was part of the Shadow Cabinet under Jeremy Corbyn. The Shadow Cabinet is a group of senior politicians from the main opposition party. They "shadow" or watch over the government ministers. She was the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2016 to 2017 and then the Shadow Business Secretary from 2017 to 2020. Later, under Keir Starmer, she was the Shadow Education Secretary from April to June 2020.
She was elected to the House of Commons in the 2015 general election. After Jeremy Corbyn became the leader of the Labour Party, she was given a role as a Junior Treasury Minister. She also joined the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, which helps run the party.
In 2020, Rebecca Long-Bailey ran to become the leader of the Labour Party. She came in second place to Keir Starmer. In July 2024, she was temporarily suspended from the Labour Party along with six other MPs. This happened because they voted for a change to a law that would remove a rule about how many children can get certain benefits.
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Early Life and Work
Rebecca Roseanne Long was born on 22 September 1979 in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. Her parents were from Ireland. Her father, Jimmy Long, worked at the docks in Salford and was a representative for his trade union. Her mother, Una, worked in a shop. Rebecca went to Chester Catholic High School.
Her first job was in a pawn shop, which she said taught her a lot about how hard life can be for some people. She also worked in call centres, a furniture factory, and delivered mail. After these jobs, she decided to study to become a solicitor.
She studied Politics and Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Then, she took several part-time courses to become a lawyer. In 2003, she started working for a law firm called Halliwells, focusing on landlord and tenant law. She officially became a solicitor in 2007. That same year, she moved to a new law firm, Hill Dickinson. There, she worked on business law, property law, and contracts for the NHS, which is the UK's public healthcare system. She said she had been working with the NHS for 10 years as a solicitor, but this included her time as a trainee and paralegal before she was fully qualified.
Rebecca Long-Bailey joined the Labour Party in 2010. A spokesperson for her said that she decided to get involved in politics after seeing plans to change the NHS, which worried her because of her work as a solicitor.
Her Time in Parliament
At the 2015 general election, Rebecca Long-Bailey was elected as the MP for Salford and Eccles. She won with 49.4% of the votes.
Working with Jeremy Corbyn
Rebecca Long-Bailey was one of 36 Labour MPs who supported Jeremy Corbyn when he ran for leader of the Labour Party in 2015. After he won, she was made a Shadow Minister for the Treasury on 18 September 2015. This meant she was part of the opposition team that looked closely at the government's money plans. She also joined Labour's National Executive Committee.
On 27 June 2016, she became the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. This was a more senior role in the Shadow Cabinet. Then, on 9 February 2017, she was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. In this role, she would question the government's plans for businesses, energy, and industry.
In the 2017 general election, she was re-elected as MP for Salford and Eccles. She received even more votes this time, with 65.6% of the share.
In 2019, Rebecca Long-Bailey helped write the Labour Party's plans for the general election that year. She said she had spent four years working on these policies.
She was re-elected again in the 2019 general election, though her share of the votes was a bit lower at 56.8%.
Running for Labour Leader in 2020
After the Labour Party lost the 2019 general election, Jeremy Corbyn announced he would step down as leader. Rebecca Long-Bailey announced on 6 January 2020 that she would run to replace him. Her friend Angela Rayner ran to be the deputy leader, and they supported each other's campaigns. Early in her campaign, Long-Bailey said she would give Corbyn a "10 out of 10" for his leadership, saying he was treated unfairly by the media.
She received enough support from other Labour MPs to move to the next stage of the election. She then got support from many local Labour Party groups and other organisations. This meant she was one of three candidates on the final ballot for leader, along with Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy.
She was supported by a large trade union called Unite the Union and an organisation called Momentum. Many people saw her as the candidate who would continue the same ideas and direction as Jeremy Corbyn.
During the election, it was pointed out that even though she spoke against private companies making money from NHS contracts, she had worked on some of these contracts as a lawyer. She had worked on NHS contracts worth a lot of money for companies based in Luxembourg. This caused some discussion during her campaign, as she had strongly spoken against this type of private involvement in the NHS.
In the end, Rebecca Long-Bailey came in second place in the leadership contest. She received 27.6% of the votes. Keir Starmer won the election with 56.2% of the votes.
Working with Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer appointed Rebecca Long-Bailey as his first Shadow Secretary of State for Education on 6 April 2020. This meant she was responsible for looking at the government's education plans.
Her role became very important when the government planned to reopen schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools had been closed since 20 March for most students. While Keir Starmer supported the government's goal to reopen schools, Rebecca Long-Bailey supported teachers' unions. These unions had concerns about reopening schools without proper health and safety measures. On 3 May, she supported the National Education Union's (NEU) five conditions for schools to reopen safely. Other Labour MPs, including Angela Rayner, also supported these conditions. Some reports suggested that her support for the teachers' unions meant she was less visible in the media for the Labour Party, but she continued to support the NEU's position on social media. The government eventually changed its plans for reopening schools in early June, accepting some of the teachers' unions' concerns.
Rebecca Long-Bailey was removed from her role by Keir Starmer on 25 June 2020. This happened after she shared an interview on Twitter with actress Maxine Peake. In the interview, Peake made a claim about police training that was later retracted by Peake and the newspaper that published it. Long-Bailey had called Peake an "absolute diamond" in her tweet. She then sent a second tweet saying she did not agree with "all aspects" of the interview. Before she was dismissed, she was asked by Starmer's office to delete both tweets but refused. She said she wanted to discuss the matter with Keir Starmer before deciding what to do, but he had already made his decision.
Rebecca Long-Bailey was one of six Labour MPs who voted against renewing the Coronavirus Act 2020. This act gave the government special powers to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. She argued that the act did not allow enough checking by Parliament and gave police too much power.
Due to changes in constituency boundaries, Rebecca Long-Bailey's old area of Salford and Eccles was replaced by a new area called Salford. In the 2024 general election, she was elected as the MP for Salford with 53.2% of the votes.
In July 2024, Rebecca Long-Bailey was one of seven Labour MPs who voted for a proposal to remove the two-child benefit cap. Because of this vote, she and the other six MPs were suspended from the Labour Party for six months.
Political Ideas
Rebecca Long-Bailey has spoken about her views on various topics.
She has said she was not happy with how the Labour Party handled concerns about fairness within the party when Jeremy Corbyn was leader. She felt that complaints were not dealt with fast enough. She said that if she were Labour leader, she would follow the advice of Jewish community groups.
Long-Bailey supports a Green New Deal. This is a plan to invest in environmentally friendly industries to help protect the planet for the future.
On changing how the government works, Long-Bailey believes the House of Lords should be removed. The House of Lords is the second chamber of the UK Parliament, and its members are not elected. She thinks there should be a system to check laws, but it should not be done by people who are not elected. She suggested replacing it with a senate where members are elected fairly, and this senate would check laws based on how they affect wealth, well-being, and the environment.
Rebecca Long-Bailey has said she would be ready to use the UK's nuclear weapons if she were Prime Minister. She added that any leader needs to carefully think about the situation and the results of their actions.
She voted in favour of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.
Regarding a second Scottish independence referendum, Long-Bailey has said she would campaign against Scotland becoming independent. However, she also said she would not want to stop the people of Scotland from having a democratic vote.
In 2020, Long-Bailey signed a pledge from the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights. This pledge supported trans rights and suggested that groups seen as against trans rights should be removed from the Labour Party. The groups mentioned denied being against trans people.
Long-Bailey has stated that she would support workers in all strike actions and disagreements with employers, "no questions asked."
In July 2020, she joined a group in Parliament that supports whistleblowers, who are people who report wrongdoing.
Rebecca Long-Bailey is against sending Julian Assange to the United States. She was one of six MPs who signed a motion in Parliament against it in July 2020.
She believes it is unfair that income from wealth is taxed less than income from work. She wants to change this. Long-Bailey supports a "wealth tax" on very rich people and wants to share wealth more fairly to pay for public services. She also wants to tax the large profits of oil and gas companies more.
Personal Life
Rebecca Long-Bailey is married to Stephen Bailey, who works in marketing for a chemicals company. They have one son. She is a Roman Catholic, but she does not agree with all of the Church's teachings.
Images for kids
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Official portrait, 2017
See also
In Spanish: Rebecca Long-Bailey para niños
