1. Jessica Redmond-Withey Asato was born on 30 April 1981 and is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Lowestoft since 2024.
16 Facts About Jess Asato
1. 2.
Jess Asato was a member of Islington Borough Council from 2010 to 2013.
3.
Jess Asato grew up in the Gorleston-on-Sea area of Great Yarmouth and the nearby Norfolk village of Rollesby where she lived with and cared for her grandmother, who had serious health problems, and went to Flegg High School in Great Yarmouth.
4.
Jess Asato was a keen debater at Sixth Form level, reaching the semi-finals of the Oxford Union schools' debate competition.
5.
Jess Asato studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where she graduated with a degree in law.
6.
In 2009, Jess Asato was ranked no 78 among the Top 100 most influential Left-wingers by The Daily Telegraph.
7.
Jess Asato was accused of hypocrisy for later supporting Clive Efford's anti-privatisation National Health Service Bill.
8.
Jess Asato was a councillor on Islington London Borough Council from 2010 to 2013, but resigned to spend more time in Norwich.
9.
Jess Asato has been criticised in Islington by political opponents for spending too much time in Norfolk, and for allegedly being a "professional politician".
10.
Jess Asato worked in Westminster two days a week as political adviser to former cabinet minister and culture secretary Tessa Jowell, and was featured as one of the Evening Standard's Lucky 13 in 2013.
11.
Jess Asato went on to contest the Lowestoft constituency in the 2024 general election, achieving a victory over the previous Conservative MP for Waveney, Peter Aldous, with a margin of just over 2000 votes.
12.
Jess Asato was previously acting director of Progress, a director of Left Foot Forward and is vice-chairman of the Fabian Society.
13.
Jess Asato is Vice-Chair of the Electoral Reform Society and chair of governors of Jack Taylor Special School for children with disabilities and learning difficulties, and served as joint acting chair of Brook.
14.
Jess Asato is on the advisory board of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.
15.
Jess Asato was quickly divorced from her first husband, Howard Dawber, who stood as the Labour candidate for Bexleyheath and Crayford at the 2010 general election, whilst her second husband, journalist Gareth Butler, died of a heart attack in 2008.
16.
Jess Asato married her third husband, Rob Chaplin, in 2014 and had a baby in 2015.