Liz Kendall

Elizabeth Louise "Liz" Kendall (born 11 June 1971) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester West since 2010. In 2011 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Care and Older People and invited to attend meetings of the Shadow Cabinet. On 10 May 2015, Kendall announced she would stand to be Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election initiated following the resignation of Ed Miliband. On 12 September, the results were announced with Kendall in fourth place.

Early life and career

Kendall was born and brought up in the village of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire, near Watford. Her father left school at 16 and worked his way up to become a senior Bank of England official, and her mother was a junior school teacher. Her father was also a local Liberal councillor and her parents involved her in local campaigns as a child. Both of her parents are now active supporters of the Labour Party. She attended Watford Grammar School for Girls, where she was Head Girl and a contemporary of Geri Halliwell and the Conservative cabinet minister Priti Patel. After leaving school, she read History at Queens' College, Cambridge, where she captained the ladies' football team, and graduated from Cambridge University with a first in 1993.