30 Facts About Jonathan Ashworth

Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth was born on 14 October 1978 and is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since 2021.

Jonathan Ashworth was first elected at a by-election in 2011, following the resignation of his predecessor Peter Soulsby.

In October 2016, Jonathan Ashworth was appointed Shadow Health Secretary by party leader Jeremy Corbyn, shadowing Jeremy Hunt and later Matt Hancock alongside the Shadow Minister for Social Care Barbara Keeley.

In 2021, Jonathan Ashworth was appointed Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary and was succeeded by Wes Streeting.

Jonathan Ashworth was born in Salford, brought up in north Manchester and educated at Philips High School in Whitefield and Bury College before studying politics and philosophy at the University of Durham.

Jonathan Ashworth began working for the Labour Party as a Political Research Officer in 2001, and was the Economics and Welfare Policy Officer from 2002 to 2004.

When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, Jonathan Ashworth was appointed deputy Political Secretary with the role of linking the Government to the trade unions.

Jonathan Ashworth spent most of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election campaign in the constituency.

Jonathan Ashworth did not publicly support any candidate in the subsequent leadership election because of his role working for Harriet Harman but he was described as a "key member" of Ed Miliband's team on the day after Miliband won the Labour leadership election.

When Miliband was elected as Leader of the Labour Party, he asked Jonathan Ashworth to join his office as Head of Party Relations.

Jonathan Ashworth was linked with a possible candidature in Mansfield should the sitting Member of Parliament Alan Meale decide to stand down, but Meale decided to seek re-election despite widespread speculation he was to retire from Parliament.

Jonathan Ashworth was then identified as a potential candidate for Nottingham East when the sitting MP John Heppell retired, but the selection went to former MP Chris Leslie when the Labour National Executive Committee chose to impose Leslie at the last minute.

Jonathan Ashworth sought selection in Leicester South in 2011 when the sitting MP Peter Soulsby decided to resign to seek election as Mayor of Leicester.

Jonathan Ashworth was immediately identified as the front-runner for the selection and was backed by the major trade unions including his own Unite, GMB and UNISON.

Jonathan Ashworth was endorsed by the Co-operative Party and is a Co-operative Party MP.

Jonathan Ashworth was selected on the first ballot by the local party, and held the seat with an increased majority on 5 May 2011.

Jonathan Ashworth served as an Opposition Whip from October 2011 to October 2013 and Shadow Minister of State for the Cabinet Office from October 2013 to September 2015.

On 11 July 2013, Jonathan Ashworth replaced Tom Watson as Deputy Chairman of the National Executive Committee.

Jonathan Ashworth nominated Yvette Cooper to be Leader of the Labour Party following the resignation of Ed Miliband after the 2015 general election.

In December 2015, Jonathan Ashworth voted against the resolution to authorise RAF bombing of ISIL in Syria.

Jonathan Ashworth was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health in October 2016.

Jonathan Ashworth held "years of Tory cutbacks" responsible for understaffing and for increasing pressures, which put patients at risk.

On 10 December 2019, it emerged that Jonathan Ashworth had told a friend that he did not believe Labour would win the 2019 general election due to be held two days later.

Jonathan Ashworth said that this was largely due to the unpopularity of Jeremy Corbyn and voters outside the cities blaming Labour for not delivering Brexit.

Jonathan Ashworth's friend, who was a Conservative activist, leaked a recording of the conversation to right-wing website Guido Fawkes.

Jonathan Ashworth later claimed that he was joking and just "joshing around".

Jonathan Ashworth supported Lisa Nandy in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.

Jonathan Ashworth became engaged to Emilie Oldknow, the East Midlands Regional Director for the Labour Party, in 2008.

Jonathan Ashworth was the official Labour candidate for Sherwood at the 2010 general election, but was not elected.

Jonathan Ashworth has used his role as shadow health secretary to advocate legislation to prevent alcoholism, inspired by his own experience of his father who was an alcoholic.