Charlotte Nichols

Nichols was born in Romford and grew up in Reading before moving to Liverpool where she studied politics at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 2013.[3]

She has three sisters and three step-siblings. Her father Ged Nichols is from Kirkby, Merseyside and is the General Secretary of the financial services trade union Accord he was appointed as the president of the TUC in 2020. Her mother is from East London.[4]

She became interested in politics at a young age and said in an interview she was obsessed with the Speaker of the House of Commons Betty Boothroyd and the Speakers shouts of “Order”.[5]

As a teenager she had one of her earliest experiences of politics when she helped run after-school UK Youth Parliament activities with future Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May.[6]

Nichols was a women's officer for Young Labour.[7]

After graduating from the University of Liverpool in 2013, Nichols worked in Salford for five years for the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers. Supporting logistics workers from Warrington employed at Hermes (Now Evri), Yodel and XPO Logistics with pay and conditions negotiations.[8]

Nichols then went on to work for the GMB trade union as a national research and policy officer,[9] where she campaigned for better term and conditions for Amazon and Asda workers.[10]

While working for GMB, Nichols made the case for Government to invest in low-carbon nuclear technology.[11]

Nichols stood as the Labour Party candidate for Warrington North at the 2019 general election. She was elected with a majority of 1,509 votes holding the constituency for Labour.[12] There was a reduction in the overall majority which followed the broader trend of the 2019 election, where many northern, Labour voting constituencies voted Conservative for the first time the so called "Red Wall".[13]

In the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn, she served as the PPS to Tracy Brabin as Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for a brief period during the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, before being moved in the Shadow Cabinet of Sir Keir Starmer to being PPS to Emily Thornberry as Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade.[14] When Ruth Jones was promoted to Shadow Air Qualities Minister, Nichols replaced her as PPS to Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Louise Haigh.[15]

On 12 November 2020, Nichols was appointed Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities.[16] She stepped down from this role in September 2021, coinciding with the resignation of the Shadow Secretary of State Marsha de Cordova, citing personal reasons.[17]

Nichols supported Rebecca Long-Bailey in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election, but nominated Emily Thornberry to broaden the field of candidates.[18][19]

In April 2021, Nichols apologised to the Traveller communities after she distributed a local election leaflet which pledged to deal with "Traveller incursions".[20] The leaflet had been circulated in the Orford ward of her constituency during the 2021 Local Elections, in response to encampments on the nearby Poole Park. Nichols apologised and issued a statement, saying: “I have spoken to the local Labour party, the leaflet has been withdrawn and the leaflet will be destroyed. I regret that this leaflet has been distributed in the town. The leaflet is not in line with my personal values or those of the Labour party." Nichols pledged to be "an ally" to the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community.[21]

Politically she identifies as being on the left of the Labour Party[22] and is from a progressive trade union background.[23] Nichols supported Jeremy Corbyn in both the 2015 and the 2016 Labour Party leadership elections.[24]

Nichols grew up in a mostly secular Catholic family with some Irish heritage. At the age of 22, Nichols started attending weekly services at the Manchester Reform Synagogue; after attending the services she claimed to have felt more peace than she ever had growing up as a Catholic.[25] She converted to Judaism in 2014 and celebrated her bat mitzvah on her 27th birthday.[26]

Since converting to Judaism, Nichols has faced ongoing abuse for her beliefs, including anti-Semitism from a Conservative Party council candidate for the 2021 Warrington Borough Council election. The candidate sent a message via Twitter to Nichols saying “Keep the Aryan race going”.[27]

In 2021, it was reported that Nichols has post-traumatic stress disorder, having been forced to cut a parliamentary visit to Gibraltar short following a "mental health episode".[28]

In 2022, Nichols opened up about her struggles with abusive messages and threats of violence she has faced after a BBC investigation found she was in the top 5 of backbench MPs to receive abusive and toxic tweets on Twitter.[29][30]

In a 2021 interview Nichols stated she identifies as bisexual.[31]

Prior to the General Election of December 2019, Nichols used an article on the website LabourList to defend Corbyn's attendance at a Seder to celebrate the Jewish festival of Pesach, organised by the far-left Jewish diaspora group Jewdas.[32] The event was later criticized in article which appeared in The Times after allegations emerged that attendees had engaged in chants of "fuck the police" and "fuck the armies".[33]

In October 2019 Nichols tweeted that a group of S.S. Lazio fans who had been filmed making Nazi salutes in Glasgow should "get their heads kicked in". Nichols defended her comments in December, "These were people doing Nazi salutes on the streets of Britain... As a Jewish person whose grandfather fought in World War Two, ultimately sometimes I believe that fascism has to be physically confronted".[34][35]

An article published in the Daily Telegraph in 2019 reported that Nichols had described members of the Green Party as "bourgeois scab fucks" and told one Twitter user, "Hope you lose your virginity".[36]

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou