How are Labour’s senior figures spending Christmas? – LabourList

As Parliament now in recess for Christmas, how are some of Labour’s most senior and well-known figures spending the holiday season? LabourList asked Cabinet ministers, party figures and members of our own team about what they will be doing over the festive period.

Lucy Powell, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party

Christmas is one of my favourite times of year. A real chance to wind down, spend time with family and friends, reflect on the year gone by and look ahead to the next. For some it can be a lonely time though, or a time of public service and I want to put on record my thanks to everyone working over the festive period. 

I’ll be spending Christmas with family, cooking for 13 (I do a mean turkey gravy and lots of great sides) and doing our family secret Santa, and the traditional Treasure Hunt. 

At times it’s felt like a hard year, and we’ve done a lot in it, but we can look forward to brighter new year, with a Labour government doing good things. I want to wish everyone a happy and restful Christmas, my thanks for all the work you’ve done as members this year and all the best for 2026. 

Anna Turley, Chair of the Labour Party

I will be resting with family and friends in Redcar over the Christmas period and getting plenty of walks on the beach with my dog Mo! I will be building up my strength as we have a big year ahead of us and I plan to hit the ground running.

Hollie Ridley, General Secretary of the Labour Party

I’m looking forward to spending time with my family, probably eating a ridiculous amount of turkey, and doing all the lovely things that make Christmas such a special time of year. I also always love our annual trip to the pantomime – although I feel like I’ve watched about 100 pantomimes already this year, but it turns out they were actually Reform UK press conferences!

Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister

For Christmas, I’ll be heading home to Bristol and swapping the pressures of Whitehall for those of the kitchen, as head chef on Christmas Day – not to mention trying to protect our fiscal headroom from the pressures of cost centres 1, 2 and 3 (my kids).

Liz Kendall, Technology Secretary

I just want to see my family and take a break from politics (mostly – it would be impossible in my family!) I won’t be making the turkey, but I will be making the dessert.

Douglas Alexander, Scottish Secretary

Taking a break with family and friends.

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Emma Burnell, Editor of LabourList

I will convene with most of my immediate family at my sister’s on the day, sadly my brother and his partner live on the other side of the world, but we will have life-sized cardboard cut outs of them there (I’m not joking). I’m in charge of dessert and will be making a sticky toffee pudding which always goes down a treat. 

I will make dumb jokes with my nephew trying to wind his mum up. I am also, God help me, planning to get on TikTok so will be getting tips from my niece who is queen of social media.

Ellie Ormsby, LabourList commercial and operations manager

I’ll be heading back up North for the festive season to spend quality time with my family in Wakefield and my in-laws in Manchester.

I’ll then return to London for New Year’s Eve celebrations before gearing up for Dry January—and attempting (probably failing) all the new year’s resolutions I’ve set, including quitting vaping and being an all round good-egg.  

Paul Nowak, TUC General Secretary and LabourList columnist

Time at home with the family (important when you have a 400-mile round trip weekly commute), Everton at home on the final day of the holidays – oh, and fitting a new wood-burner on my narrowboat… a test of my DIY skills (well, my brother’s skills to be honest…)

Ben Cooper, Head of the Fabian Housing Centre and LabourList columnist

I’ll be spending time in Yorkshire with family. My priority is to relax, ideally in coastal communities across the region, enjoying the bracing weather that somehow relaxes me – and trying not to think about the politics of the Sea Wall. And I’ll be watching a lot of TV, including Taskmaster, Grand Designs and a new series of Lego Masters Australia.

Stella Tsantekidou, LabourList columnist

I am going home to Greece and letting my parents fatten me up in time for the cold English winter (and rising cost of living).

Tom Belger, LabourList columnist and former editor

Happy Christmas all! My Christmas wish is that hosting it my own place for only the second time, and for the first time with two sets of families, ends in tears of joy rather than tears of unmitigated disaster. And that we don’t have to eat mushy overdone sprouts.

Present-wise, I’m hoping for some Irish whiskey. And a giftcard for a charming but pricey new local cinema, to prise me away from streaming on the couch without wincing at my wallet.

I’d also love a thoroughly uplifting-sounding book I’ve just stumbled on to get me into the festive spirit – The Truth About Modern Slavery. Or maybe I’ll leave starting that till gloomy January.

All of the LabourList team wish all our readers a very happy Christmas.

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