Yvette Cooper
Yvette Cooper was born on March 20, 1969. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Yvette Cooper
Yvette Cooper (born 20 March 1969) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since July 2026. She previously served as Foreign Secretary from September 2025 to July 2026 and as Home Secretary from 2024 to 2025. A member of the Labour Party, Cooper has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley, formerly Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, since 1997. She previously held various ministerial positions under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1999 to 2010, lastly as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2009 to 2010. Born in Inverness, Cooper is the daughter of trade union leader Tony Cooper. She first attended Eggar's School and was later educated at Alton College. She studied philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Balliol College, Oxford and then won a Kennedy Scholarship in 1991 to study at Harvard University. She completed her postgraduate studies with an MSc degree in economics at the London School of Economics. Cooper began her career economic policy researcher for Shadow Chancellor John Smith, later working for Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton and shadow cabinet minister Harriet Harman. She later worked for the Centre for Economic Performance, before she became the chief economics correspondent of The Independent in 1995. Having been elected to Parliament at the 1997 general election, Cooper was a Parliamentary under-secretary of state in three departments under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1999 to 2005. She was promoted to Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2005, and was invited to attend Cabinet in the role when Gordon Brown was appointed prime minister in 2007. Cooper continued to serve in Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2008 to 2009 and then as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2009 to 2010. Following Labour's defeat at the 2010 general election, she served in Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2010 to 2011. In 2011, her husband Ed Balls was promoted to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer; she replaced Balls as shadow home secretary and served until Labour lost the 2015 general election. In May 2015, Cooper announced she would run to be Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election following the resignation of Miliband. She came third with 17.0% of the vote in the first round, losing to Jeremy Corbyn. She subsequently resigned as Shadow Home Secretary in September 2015. Cooper was the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee from 2016 to 2021. As a backbencher, she repeatedly sought to extend Article 50 to delay Brexit. After six years on the backbenches, Cooper returned as shadow home secretary under Keir Starmer in a November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle. Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Cooper returned to government and was appointed home secretary by Starmer in his ministry. She faced her first major domestic event, the riots across the country following the Southport stabbing, three weeks into her tenure. As home secretary, she oversaw the establishment of the Border Security Command and the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. Cooper was later appointed Foreign Secretary during the 2025 cabinet reshuffle, becoming the first woman to have served in both roles. During her tenure as foreign secretary, the government formally recognised the state of Palestine and refused to participate in the initial offensive strikes during the 2026 Iran war. Cooper endorsed Andy Burnham in the 2026 leadership election and was subsequently appointed Health Secretary in the Burnham ministry.