Stephanie Peacock


Stephanie Louise Peacock is a British Labour Party politician and former trade union official. She became the Member of Parliament for Barnsley East at the 2017 general election. She retained her seat in 2019 general election, with significantly reduced majority than in 2017.

Early life and career

Peacock was born in Birmingham on 19 December 1986. She obtained a degree in History from Queen Mary University of London, and a master's degree from the Institute of Education, University College London. After graduating she worked as a teacher, before going on to work on adult education in Yorkshire for the shop workers’ union Usdaw.
Between 2007–2011, she served as the Youth Representative on the Labour Party National Executive Committee. In 2007 she introduced Gordon Brown at the launch of his unopposed campaign to become Labour Leader.
Between 2013–2017, she worked as a Political Officer for the GMB trade union.

Parliamentary career

At the 2015 general election, Peacock unsuccessfully stood as the Labour Party candidate in the marginal seat of Halesowen and Rowley Regis in the West Midlands, where she was defeated by the Conservative incumbent James Morris.
A few weeks before the 2017 general election, she was selected by the National Executive Committee to stand for parliament in the safe Labour seat of Barnsley East when the previous incumbent Michael Dugher retired. She was subsequently elected at the 2017 general election.
Her maiden speech occurred during a Grenfell Tower debate during which she mentioned the local issue of Orgreave.
In Parliament, Peacock has served on the International Trade Committee and the Science and Technology Committee. From January 2018 until March 2019 she served as an Opposition Whip. She resigned on 14 March 2019 after defying the whip to vote against an amendment calling for a second Brexit referendum.
Peacock has had two key campaigns thus far, changing the maximum sentences for death by dangerous driving from fourteen years to life and reforming the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme to get more money for retired miners.
In January 2020 Peacock joined Labour's Shadow Cabinet Office team as the Shadow Minister responsible for the Veterans’ Office and Procurement. Following the election of Keir Starmer as the Leader of the Labour Party, she was appointed as the Shadow Minister for Fisheries, Water and Flooding as part of Labour's Shadow Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs team.
Peacock endorsed Lisa Nandy in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.

Personal life

Peacock lives in Darfield near Barnsley in South Yorkshire.
In 2013 it was reported that Peacock was in a relationship with Tom Watson MP, then Deputy Chair of the National Executive Committee.
In November 2018 Peacock, alongside fellow Women's Parliamentary Football teammates, Alison McGovern, Tracey Crouch, Louise Haigh and Hannah Bardell, was told-off by the then Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, for having a kick-about in the Chamber after Parliamentary business. The team had been due to play their first match, but the game was cancelled because they had to be in parliament for a vote.
In 2019 Peacock ran the London Marathon in aid of Barnsley Sexual Abuse & Rape Crisis Services.