13 Facts About Alison McGovern

Alison McGovern was educated at Brookhurst Primary School, and then Wirral Grammar School for Girls, where she was the Head Girl from 1998 to 1999.

Alison McGovern was first elected as a councillor for Brunswick Park in the London Borough of Southwark in 2006, later becoming the Deputy Leader of the borough council's 29-member group of Labour councillors.

Alison McGovern was selected as the Labour Party candidate for Wirral South in December 2009, following Ben Chapman's decision to stand down at the next election for family reasons following adverse publicity in The Daily Telegraph over the expenses scandal, and subsequently won the seat in the 2010 general election, defeating the Conservative candidate, Jeff Clarke, by 531 votes.

Alison McGovern made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 3 June 2010 in a debate on European Affairs.

Alison McGovern became former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's parliamentary private secretary in July 2010.

Alison McGovern was selected by the PLP to become a member of the International Development Select Committee.

In May 2015, Alison McGovern was appointed as shadow city minister in Labour's treasury team, but did not stay on the opposition frontbench after Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader in September 2015.

In October 2015, Alison McGovern was appointed as Chair of Progress, a political organisation associated with the development of New Labour.

In January 2016, Alison McGovern resigned from Labour's policy review on child poverty and combating inequality, as a protest against Progress being described by shadow Chancellor John McDonnell as having "a hard right agenda".

Alison McGovern commented that she had been "backed into a corner".

Alison McGovern supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.

In September 2016 Alison McGovern was elected co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group Friends of Syria.

In 2008 Alison McGovern married economist Ashwin Kumar, formerly a senior civil servant in the Department for Work and Pensions and Passenger Director at Passenger Focus.