Danielle Rowley


Danielle Rowley is a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Midlothian from 2017 to 2019. She was a member of Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Minister for Climate Justice and Green Jobs from June 2019 to December 2019; when she lost her seat to Owen Thompson of the Scottish National party.

Early life and education

Danielle Rowley was born on 25 February 1990 and grew up on a council estate in Dalkeith. Her father is Scottish Labour Party politician Alex Rowley and her late mother was a trade unionist. Both her grandfathers were Labour Party activists and miners. She was educated at Dalkeith High School and graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a journalism degree in 2014. Rowley supported Scotland staying part of the union during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, and worked as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's constituency media manager during the campaign.
Before her election to parliament, Rowley worked as the Campaigns and Public Relations Officer for housing charity Shelter Scotland and was also a Member of the Scottish Youth Parliament.

Parliamentary career

Rowley was selected in April 2017 as the official Labour Party candidate, for the Midlothian constituency at the snap general election held on 8 June. She went on to be elected as the Member of Parliament for the constituency with a majority of 885 votes over the sitting Scottish National party MP Owen Thompson. Rowley was the first female MP to represent Midlothian. In her maiden speech in the House of Commons in July 2017, she commented that she would fight to reduce the need of food banks in her constituency. Shortly after her election, Rowley was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry. She has sat on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee since September 2017.
She chaired Richard Leonard's successful 2017 Scottish Labour leadership campaign to become Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, following Kezia Dugdale's decision to resign. Since September 2017, Rowley has been a member of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee.
Rowley supported the United Kingdom remaining within the European Union in the 2016 UK EU membership referendum. In the indicative votes on 27 March 2019, she voted for a referendum on a Brexit withdrawal agreement, for Norway plus, and for a customs union with the EU.
On 21 June 2019, Rowley was appointed as Shadow Minister for Climate Justice and Green Jobs, a new role.
Rowley lost her seat to Scottish National party candidate Owen Thompson in the 2019 United Kingdom general election by a majority of 5,705. Thompson regained the seat having previously held the seat from 2015 to 2017.