Introduction
Nadia Edith Whittome (born 1996) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham East since the 2019 general election. At the age of 23, she was the youngest MP elected in the general election and therefore became the Baby of the House.
Early life
Whittome was born in Nottingham, England, into a working-class family. Her Punjabi Sikh father emigrated to the UK from Banga, India at the age of 21. He has worked a variety of jobs including as an immigration advisor, factory worker, miner, and a driving instructor. Her mother is an Anglo-Indian Catholic solicitor whose parents emigrated from Calcutta in the 1950s. She was formerly a member of the Labour Party, who left the party in protest at the amendment of Clause IV of the constitution in 1995. Whittome has a brother who works as a bricklayer in Sydney. Her grandparents belonged to the Communist Party of India. She grew up in a single-parent household. Whittome reports that she attended a private school between the ages of 7 and 11. She later attended West Bridgford School, a local comprehensive. Whittome has lived in the Meadows, Top Valley, and West Bridgford.
She has commented in interviews that she first got involved in politics in 2013 due to the effects of the bedroom tax and austerity on her local community. Whittome worked as a parliamentary intern in the constituency office of the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Durham Pat Glass, Shadow Minister of State for Europe, during the 2016 European Union referendum campaign. Glass stood down at the 2017 general election. She studied law at Nottingham University after attending an access course at Nottingham College. While studying there, she contested the 2017 Nottinghamshire County Council election as the Labour candidate for the West Bridgford West ward, where she finished second to the Conservative candidate with 1,393 votes. Whittome later dropped out of university due to financial reasons, and worked as a hate crime project worker at Communities Inc, and as a carer.
Prior to her election, she was a national committee member of the pro-Remain organisations Another Europe is Possible and Labour for a Socialist Europe.
Parliamentary career
Whittome was selected as the Labour Party candidate for Nottingham East on 28 October 2019. She was elected as the MP for the constituency in the December general election with a majority of 17,393 (43.4%). At the age of 23, she was the youngest MP elected in the general election, and therefore gained the unofficial title of Baby of the House. The seat has been held by the Labour Party since the 1992 general election, and had previously been represented by Chris Leslie who himself is a former Baby of the House. Whittome is of Punjabi descent, and was also the first BAME MP elected in Nottingham.
Shortly after her election, she announced that she would only be keeping the equivalent of "an average worker's wage", as determined by the Office for National Statistics, of £35,000, and would donate the remainder of her £79,468 salary as an MP to local charities. Whittome initially supported Clive Lewis in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election but after Lewis withdrew his candidacy, nominated Emily Thornberry to ensure she received enough nominations to proceed to the next stage. On 28 February 2020, Whittome announced that she would be voting for Rebecca Long-Bailey for leader and Dawn Butler for deputy.
In February 2020, Whittome organised a letter signed by 170 MPs demanding that foreign-born offenders not be deported back to Jamaica.