Helen Jones



Helen Mary Jones (born 24 December 1954) has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Warrington North since 1997.

Jones was appointed as an Assistant Government Whip in 2008, and was Vice-Chamberlain of the Household from 2009 to 2010. She wrote a book, entitled "How to be a Government Whip", about her time in the Whip's Office, published by Biteback Publishing in 2016.

Parliamentary career
in 1997, Jones was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the 'safe' Labour seat of Warrington North and the subsequent general election saw her win the seat with 62.1% of the vote. Her share of the vote shrunk to 53.5% in the 2005 election and again to 45.5% in the 2010 election but she retained her seat each time.

Jones served as a member of the House of Commons select committees on Catering (1997–98), Public Administration (1998–2000) and Education and Employment (1999–2001 and 2003–). She also served on the Standing Orders Committee (1999–) and the Unopposed Bills (Panel) (1999–). She was also a member of Labour Party backbench committees on Home Affairs (2002–), Education and Employment (1997–2001), Health (1997–2001) and International Development (1997–2001). She served on the all-party groups on Child Abduction (1999–2002) and CAFOD (2003–). From June 2007 to October 2008, she served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dawn Primarolo MP, Minister of State for Health. On 19 June 2015, she was announced as having been elected to the chairmanship of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee. On 19 June 2015, it was announced that she had been elected to the chairmanship of the Petitions Select Committee.

Cabinet positions
In the cabinet reshuffle of October 2008, Jones was promoted to a junior Government role in the position of Assistant Government Whip.

In Opposition in the next Parliament, she became Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government and was subsequently appointed Shadow Home Office Minister by Edward Miliband in an October 2013 reshuffle. She stepped down from the frontbench in July 2014, stating a desire to focus on community matters and speak freely on matters such as fracking and HS2