EMMA REYNOLDS 2025 DEFRA ENVIRONMENT DEPARTMENT FOOD RURAL AFFAIRS AGRICULTURE SECRETARY STATE CABINET MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT MPs SIR KEIR STARMER LABOUR'S MINISTERS AND GOVERMENT FOR KING CHARLES

According to the UK Government website, Emma Reynolds MP was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 5 September 2025.

She was previously:

- Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 14 January 2025 to 5 September 2025
- Parliamentary Secretary at HM Treasury and the Department of Work and Pensions from 9 July 2024 to 14 January 2025

She was elected as the MP for Wycombe in July 2024.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Secretary of State has overall responsibility for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. She has specific responsibilities for:

- budget, including Official Development Assistance (ODA)
- international relations
- senior appointments
- economic growth

DEFRA is also responsible for pollution in the country, including water pollution and dumping waste in rivers. The post includes the quality of bathing water on coasts, such as to prevent South East and Southern Water dumping untreated sewage into the English Channel. There is no statute of limitations on such crimes.

DEFRA is not responsible for tainted planning consents, which likely falls to the Housing and Communities, and Justice Secretaries of State. Such issues are interconnected and cannot be resolved by a single authority acting alone. Ministerial oversight intervention is the only realistic mechanism where multiple agencies are involved.

Emma Elizabeth Reynolds (born 2 November 1977) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) since 2025. She previously served as Economic Secretary and City Minister from January to September 2025. She was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wycombe in 2024, and was previously the MP for Wolverhampton North East between 2010 and 2019.

Between losing her seat in 2019 and returning to Parliament in 2024, Reynolds worked as a lobbyist for TheCityUK, an advocacy group representing the interests of the financial sector. She also set up her own lobbying business before becoming an MP.

PARLIAMENTARY CAREER

Reynolds was selected as the Labour candidate for the 2010 general election for Wolverhampton North East in September 2008. Despite a 9% swing to the Conservatives and a reduction in majority of more than 6,000, she held the seat for Labour.

Reynolds spoke in the House of Commons on Building Schools for the Future, free school meals, human trafficking, cuts to police numbers and Mental Health Services. Shortly after her election in 2010 Reynolds was also elected to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons.

In October 2010, Reynolds was promoted by Labour's new leader, Ed Miliband, to the opposition frontbench as a shadow junior Foreign Office Minister under the then Shadow Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper. After the resignation of the Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson and resulting mini-reshuffle of posts, Reynolds continued working in her post under the new Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander. In October 2011, Emma Reynolds was promoted by Labour leader, Ed Miliband, to the position of Shadow Europe Minister.

In October 2013, Reynolds was promoted by Ed Miliband to the position of Shadow Housing Minister, replacing Jack Dromey. In May 2015, after the 2015 general election, Reynolds was promoted to the position of Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary by acting leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman, following the resignation of Ed Miliband.

Reynolds is former Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary China Group and Vice Chair for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs, as well as Secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking.

Reynolds resigned as Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. She later supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.

She was defeated in the 2019 election by the Conservatives' Jane Stevenson.

VIEWS ON THE EUROPEAN UNION

In an online article for the New Labour pressure group Progress in 2011, Reynolds said that "Britain's membership of the European Union is in our national interest".

In an October 2012 interview with the Total Politics website, Reynolds called for the eurozone countries to integrate more closely. She also said she had differing opinions with Jon Cruddas, Labour's policy review chief, on whether having a referendum on the EU was a priority. In the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum, Reynolds campaigned for Britain Stronger in Europe.

POST-PARLIAMENTARY CAREER

Following her departure from parliament in 2019, Reynolds was appointed as Managing Director of Public Affairs, Policy & Research at TheCityUK, a special interest group lobbying the UK Government on behalf of the financial sector. While working for TheCityUK, Reynolds lobbied the UK government to avoid placing China in the strictest category of rules for the registering foreign influence, but denied representing Chinese businesses or the Chinese government.

RETURN TO PARLIAMENT

On 19 November 2022, Reynolds was selected to be the Labour Party's Parliamentary candidate for Wycombe at the 2024 general election.

At the election, Reynolds was elected with a majority of 4,591 over the incumbent MP, former Conservative minister Steve Baker. She became the first Labour MP elected for the Wycombe constituency since 1950 as well as becoming the first female Labour MP for the constituency.

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

In the 2025 cabinet reshuffle, Reynolds was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and placed on the Privy Council.

In December 2025, Reynolds announced the government's updated animal welfare strategy, including a ban on trail hunting, snare traps, and puppy farming, phaseout of farrowing crates for pigs and colony cages for egg-laying hens, and new humane slaughter standards for pigs and fish.