Yvette Cooper

Biography

Yvette Cooper is the Minister for Housing and Planning, and has been the MP for Pontefract and Castleford since 1997. She read PPE at Balliol College, Oxford, went on to Harvard University as a Kennedy scholar and the London School of Economics where she took a masters degree in economics.

She has worked as economic researcher for late John Smith, Policy Advisor to Bill Clinton Presidential Campaign, Policy Adviser to Labour Treasury Team on public spending, and was an economics columnist with The Independent newspaper.

She’s a member of the T&G and GMB unions.

Links to the nuclear industry

Yvette Cooper’s father is Tony Cooper, a member of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and former chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association.

As Minister responsible for Planning, Yvette Cooper will play a crucial role in determining whether new nuclear power stations are built.