# Julie Minns

Julie Minns (born 11 December 1968) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Carlisle since 2024. A member of the Labour Party, Minns is the first female MP to represent the constituency.

## Early life
### Family

Minns's father, who died in 2007, was a painter and decorator whilst her mother, Freda, is a former home-help. Minns is a distant cousin of Ernest Lowthian, who was the first Labour politician to stand for election to the UK parliament in the Carlisle constituency, and her great grandfather John Hodgson-Minns, was a Conservative councillor and alderman of the city

### Childhood and education

Minns was born in Carlisle. She grew up in the Denton Holme area of the city and attended Trinity School, Carlisle. She had a part-time job at a bakery and was the first member of her family to go to university.

## Career

Minns was elected as a Councillor onto Lambeth Council in 1998, in the Thornton ward and held the transport portfolio whilst serving on the council. She stepped down in 2002 to bring up her daughter as a single parent.
From 2005 to 2008, Minns was a director of Living Streets (UK).
Before entering Parliament, Minns worked as a freelance communications consultant. Prior to this, she worked as head of customer engagement at UK Power Networks, as a parliamentary adviser for the NSPCC and as a parliamentary officer for the disability rights charity Scope. Minns also worked on John Smith's Labour leadership campaign, and as a parliamentary adviser to former Streatham Labour MP Keith Hill.
Minns held a part-time consultancy role at public relations, reputation management, and marketing company Bell Pottinger in 2014. She then was an LLP member at the company from January 2015 to August 2016. The company went out of business in 2017 following a scandal related to the Gupta Family, who had an account with the company from January 2016. In 2023 Private Eye magazine claimed that Minns had attempted to conceal her employment by the company in her online profile. Minns responded by correcting her profile and confirming that she had left the company over a year before its closure.
Minns was Chair of the Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths community group, which aimed to restore and reopen the baths.

## Parliamentary career (2024–present)

Minns was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the Carlisle constituency in February 2023, through a local selection process. She was elected to Parliament in the 2024 UK general election with a majority of 5,200 votes and is the constituency's first female MP.
On 16 July 2024, Minns requested a meeting with water regulator Ofwat after it was revealed that the regulator was expanding its investigation into how companies manage sewer treatment, and subsequently welcomed the probe into United Utilities; stating that the Labour government would not tolerate "sewage being pumped into our rivers, lakes and seas ".
On 23 July, Minns voted against the SNP amendment to the King's speech to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
In July 2024, Minns joined the Labour Growth Group and was amongst the original 54 MPs who wrote a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer asking him to deliver on the party's manifesto commitment to build 1.5 million homes by the end of the current parliament.
Following the government announcement that the Winter Fuel Allowance was to be removed from pensioners not in receipt of Pension Credit, the issue was discussed and voted on by MPs on the 10th of September 2024 with Minns voting in favour of the government position to remove the payment.
In November 2024, Minns was appointed a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Department for Transport (DfT).

## Personal life

Minns has a daughter, who is a student nurse.