JO STEVENS WALES WELSH SECRETARY CABINET CARDIFF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT MPs SIR KEIR STARMER's LABOUR MINISTERS AND SECRETARIES OF STATE 2025 GOVERNMENT FOR KING CHARLES

JO STEVENS - LABOUR CABINET 2025

4 JULY GENERAL ELECTION LANDSLIDE VICTORY FOR THE LABOUR PARTY - OUSTING THE CONSERVATIVE ROT AND GIVING SIR KEIR STARMER AND HIS CABINET A SHOT AT TRYING TO PUT RIGHT WHAT THE CONSERVATIVES HAVE BEEN FOULING UP FOR SO LONG

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Jo Stevens - Wales, Welsh Secretary

JO STEVENS

Jo Stevens remained Secretary of State for Wales through 2025, into 2026. All quiet on the western front.

Jo was first elected as the MP for Cardiff Central in 2015, and held several roles on Mr Cobyn’s frontbench before quitting in 2017 over Labour’s position on Brexit. She was brought back on by Sir Keir in 2020, first as shadow culture secretary, and then as shadow secretary of state for Wales.

Ms Stevens, a former lawyer, grew up in North Wales and attended Argoed High School and Elfed High School, both state-funded. She went on to study law at the University of Manchester before joining Thompsons Solicitors, an employment rights firm with a focus on social justice.

Stevens supported Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election. He subsequently appointed her Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, shadowing Oliver Dowden. On 29 November 2021, she was reshuffled back to the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Wales by Keir Starmer.

In 2023, Stevens' office was defaced by protestors after she abstained on a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. She described the incident as 'intimidating'.

In the 2024 United Kingdom general election, she was selected to contest the new Cardiff East constituency, after Cardiff Central was abolished. She won the seat, with a majority of 9,097 votes. Stevens was appointed Secretary of State for Wales in the first cabinet of Keir Starmer following the 2024 election.

Stevens is a unionist. She has opposed devolution of policing and justice, of legal gender recognition, and full devolution of the post-Brexit Shared Prosperity Fund to the Senedd.

She opposed Brexit, describing herself as a "passionate European" in 2017. She has called for the introduction of legislation penalising social media companies that fail to tackle disinformation. She has supported introducing automatic voter registration upon receiving a national insurance number and lowering of the voting age to 16.