Yvette Cooper MP

Since becoming an MP, Yvette Cooper has been tipped for high office, becoming the first female Chief Secretary to the Treasury in Tony Blair’s government. She was also the first minister to take maternity leave and with husband Ed Balls, was part of the first married couple to sit in Cabinet. Jane Garvey joined the Shadow Home Secretary and Woman’s Hour Powerlister in her West Yorkshire constituency to talk about ambition, the two Eds, and her battle with civil servants whom she felt excluded her while she was a Minister on maternity leave.