Elizabeth Louise Kendall (born 11 June 1971)[1] is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since July 2024.

[6][7] Kendall joined the Labour Party in 1992 and, after graduating from Cambridge, worked at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)[6] in the area of child development and early years learning.

[6] She was unsuccessful in an attempt to be selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Chesterfield at the 2001 general election, following the retirement of Tony Benn.

In Ed Miliband's first reshuffle in October 2010, she joined the Opposition frontbench as Shadow Junior Health Minister where she served under John Healey.

[15] On 10 May 2015, Kendall announced that she was standing as a successor to Ed Miliband for the Labour Party leadership following their defeat in the 2015 general election.

[19] Her leadership bid was supported by Shadow Cabinet colleagues Ivan Lewis,[20] Chuka Umunna,[21] Tristram Hunt,[22] Emma Reynolds and Gloria De Piero.

[29][30][31] This claim was even re-stated by some Conservative politicians including George Osborne, Boris Johnson, Ruth Davidson, Anna Soubry and Philip Davies.

[39] In August 2017, James Chapman, former Director of Communications at HM Treasury under George Osborne, said, "We really need Liz Kendall to be the leader of [a] new centre party".

[41] After stepping down from frontline politics, Kendall was a regular guest on BBC current affairs programme This Week until its cancellation in July 2019.

Following the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle, it was announced that Karin Smyth would cover her duties while Kendall was on maternity leave.

[45] In the aftermath of the election, Kendall was appointed as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

She supported an in/out referendum on Britain's membership of the EU,[19] and wanted the Labour Party to play a leading role in a cross-party Yes to Europe campaign.

[49] Kendall supports a two-state solution, but in 2015 she abstained on a motion recognising the State of Palestine, instead favouring the continuation of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.

She has spoken in support of expanding the academies programme and keeping the free schools initiative saying that focus should be on the quality of education rather than structures and that investment in the early years should be a priority over cutting university tuition fees.

[57] In 2024 as Work and Pensions Secretary, Kendall suggested that job coaches could visit inpatients on mental health wards.

[59] Kendall gave some support to David Cameron's proposal that the right of EU migrants to claim tax credits and benefits should be withdrawn, or delayed for a number of years.

Kendall said that if she became Prime Minister, she would reverse any changes to trade union and employment rights made by the previous Conservative government.

[65] Kendall also criticised Len McCluskey for threatening to withdraw funding from the Labour Party were his choice of candidate not to be elected.