Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Cooper returned to government and was appointed home secretary by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in his ministry.

She read philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at Balliol College, Oxford, and graduated with a first-class honours degree.

[8] Cooper began her career as an economic policy researcher for Shadow Chancellor John Smith in 1990 before working in Arkansas for Bill Clinton, nominee of the Democratic Party for President of the United States, in 1992.

According to Conservative columnist Matthew Parris, Cooper conceived HIPs, but avoided direct criticism for its problems because of her connection with Brown.

[18] In 2008, Cooper became the first woman to serve as Chief Secretary to the Treasury where she was involved with taking Northern Rock into public ownership.

[24] An investigation in MPs' expenses by Sir Thomas Legg found that Cooper and her husband had both received overpayments of £1,363 in relation to their mortgage.

She labelled the government's vans displaying posters urging illegal immigrants to go home a "divisive gimmick" in October 2013.

[32] In February 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4, although not in the top 20.

In the twenty-first century working parents shouldn't have to go to food banks to put a hot meal on the table, as too many families now do.

[41][42] Former prime minister Gordon Brown publicly endorsed Cooper as his first choice for leader, as did former home secretary Alan Johnson.

[43][44] During the campaign, Cooper supported reintroducing the 50p income tax rate and creating more high-skilled manufacturing jobs.

[60] In April, Cooper tabled a private members' bill, again with the intended effect of preventing a "no-deal" Brexit.

She also added that people need to be able to trust the home secretary with highly sensitive information and national security.

[66][67] Following Labour's victory in the general election, Cooper was appointed home secretary by Starmer in his government on 5 July.

[68] On 7 July, after Starmer confirmed that the Rwanda asylum plan had been scrapped, Cooper announced that the Border Security Command would be established in order to help reduce small boat crossings across the English channel.

[69][70] Following the 2024 Southport stabbing, in which three young girls were killed, Cooper stated that she was concerned by the incident and described the emergency services' response as courageous.

[71] Cooper additionally visited Southport the following morning to lay flowers and meet officials and community leaders.

After Axel Rudakubana's guilty plea on 20 January 2025, Cooper announced a public inquiry, stating that the victims' families "needed answers about what had happened leading up to the attack".

[74] This was followed by Starmer's promise to overhaul terrorism laws to reflect the type of non-ideological killings characterised by individuals like Rudakubana, stressing the threat from “acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety, sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, but fixated on that extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake”.

[75] Significant attention was drawn to the anti-radicalisation Prevent programme for failing to accept referrals of Rudakubana on the basis of him lacking a terrorist ideology.

Although an emergency review found that Prevent had followed correct procedures on each referral, Cooper concluded “that too much weight was placed on the absence of ideology” in the programme.

[77][78] The command would be funded by money previously earmarked for the Rwanda plan and would be responsible for coordinating the activities of Immigration Enforcement, MI5, the Border Force and the National Crime Agency in tackling smuggling gangs which facilitate illegal migrant crossings over the English Channel.

[79][77] A team in the Home Office was tasked with setting out the remit of the command, as well as its governance structure and its strategic direction.

[81] In November 2024, Cooper voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which proposes to legalise assisted suicide.