Battle of the newborn pics – quiz your self on Labour politicians’ childhood snaps

The race is on, and there’s just over a week to go until the UK general election on July 4. That’s if the wheels of Rishi Sunak’s Conservative campaign stay on long enough…

With all the polls pointing the same way, Labour is on track for a sweeping landslide victory, meaning there’s going to be a whole new line-up of faces on the front bench of the House of Commons come the next Prime Minister’s Questions.

But can you tell your Starmers from your Streetings? Take a look at Labour’s Shadow Cabinet as children and see if you know who is who… answers at the bottom.

1

Once touted to be the inspiration for Bridget Jones’ rugged human rights lawyer boyfriend Mark Darcy, this grinning lad is obsessed with football (he still plays a five-a-side game every week with friends he’s known for decades). He made his future wife so cross during their first phone call that she let rip a four-lettered rant to colleagues while hanging up. And it’s safe to say that the entire country now knows what his father did for a living.

2

With a propensity for maths from a young age, this self-confessed “swot” spent lunchtimes at school sitting on her own poring over SATs exams to test herself, showing a competitive streak even then. She was also the British girls under-14 chess champion after her dad introduced her to the game at the age of seven. She comes from a political family, too – her younger sister is another Labour MP, and she’s married to Gordon Brown’s former speech writer.

3

With her shock of red hair, this angelic cutie never did blend in – and still doesn’t now. As well as her high-flying political career, she’s got plenty of hidden talents too – she can operate a tow truck and mix a mean vodka and VK Blue-based cocktail she dubs ‘Venom‘, which once led to a fellow politician passing out in a dog bed. Her kids call her the Vape Dragon thanks to her minor addiction, and she’s got four tattoos, including one of a Labour red rose.

4

This 12-year-old rascal went to the same secondary school as his famous older brother – and the self-confessed ‘geek’ admits he still has dreams about his school exams. “I always wake up just before I find out whether I’ve failed or passed,” he says. “I haven’t inquired too closely as to what that might mean…” Decades later he became an unlikely sex symbol with his own viral online fandom. His favourite food was once bacon sandwiches – although probably not any more.

5

This high-achiever became the first Black cathedral chorister after winning a scholarship to The King’s School in Peterborough at the age of 10. He also went on to become the first Black Briton to study a Master’s in Law at Harvard in Massachusetts, USA. When elected to his seat in a 2000 by-election, he was at that point the youngest MP in the house. Oh, and he counts former US president Barack Obama as a close friend.

6

Born to teenage parents on a council estate in East London, this future political star has previously shared how the electricity in his childhood flat would be cut off when they couldn’t pay the bill. He also had to miss school because his single mum couldn’t afford the tube fare to send him in. One of his grandfathers was an armed robber who was in and out of prison, and he owes his life to the NHS after beating kidney cancer in 2021.

7

Coming from a family whose political sentiments span the spectrum – her father is an Indian-born Marxist academic while her grandfather was a Liberal politician – means this young lady experienced “very interesting Christmas dinners” growing up. Her white mum received letters of abuse when their engagement was announced in a newspaper in 1972, when racial tensions were high. Her devotion to winning back her seat in the 21015 general election saw her hit the campaign trail while heavily pregnant – and she went back to door-knocking days after giving birth.

8

After her dad walked out, this little one and her siblings faced abject poverty while their single mum tried to keep the roof over their heads. They had to wear coats inside the house to keep warm, and their cats were put down because the family couldn’t afford to feed them. As an MP she was forced to resign from a previous shadow cabinet position over a Twitter storm that sparked fury around the country.

9

Her first job was picking fruit on a farm for £2 an hour, but this mop-haired youngster went on to spend more than two decades (and counting) in parliament. Before her political career she had to take a year out when she developed ME at the age of 24, supporting herself with sickness benefits. “I was desperate to get back to work; I hated every minute of it,” she’s said of that time. While she’s got a reputation for being rather serious, she has been spotted laughing and applauding in the audience of Strictly Come Dancing.

10

This little one and her twin brother spent a period of her childhood in Saudi Arabia, and helped out in her mother’s corner shop when the family moved to England. She failed her eleven-plus exam but was inspired to enter law while watching the ITV series Kavanagh QC. The “full-blown geek” went on to study at Oxford – where PM Rishi Sunak was in the year above her and promised to vote for her as president of the Junior Common Room.

Answers:

1. Keir Starmer

2. Rachel Reeves

3. Angela Rayner

4. Ed Milliband

5. David Lammy

6. Wes Streeting

7. Lisa Nandy

8. Emily Thornberry

9. Yvette Cooper

10. Shabana Mahmood