Janet Daby


Janet Jessica Daby is a British Labour Party politician who is Member of Parliament for the parliamentary constituency of Lewisham East in London. Daby won the seat at a by-election held on 14 June 2018 and was re-elected in the 2019 general election with 26,661 votes representing a majority of 17,008.
Daby pledged to fight for the UK to remain in the European Union customs union and the single market.

Early life

Daby's parents were Windrush migrants from Guyana and Jamaica. She was brought up on a council estate where, as a child, racists pelted her windows with eggs three nights in a row. She attended Blackheath Bluecoat School in Greenwich.

Political career

Daby is a former Lewisham borough councillor, first elected in 2010, and served as deputy mayor of the London Borough of Lewisham prior to her election as an MP. She previously worked in volunteer management and in children's social care, and acted as a registered fostering manager.
A by-election was triggered in Lewisham East by the resignation of the incumbent Labour MP Heidi Alexander in May 2018. Daby was selected as Labour's by-election candidate after hustings involving an all-women shortlist. She retained the seat for Labour in the June 2018 by-election with 50.2% of the vote, although Labour's majority was reduced from 21,213 to 5,629. Turnout, however, was 33.3%, roughly half of the 2017 election where it was 69.3%.
She was given her first shadow ministerial post on 9 April 2020 by the new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer as Shadow Minister for Faiths, a new position shadowing ministers of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Personal life

Daby has two children. She has lived in Lewisham for over 20 years.