Charlotte Nichols is the Labour MP for Warrington North, having first been elected to parliament at the 2019 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Nichols received 18,730 votes, representing 46.8% of the vote share. The Reform UK candidate, Trevor Nicholls, received 9,540 votes (23.8%) and the Conservative candidate received 6,486 votes (16.2%). Nichols was duly re-elected with a majority of 9,190 votes.

The Warrington North constituency is located in Cheshire, on the border with Merseyside, north of the River Mersey. It covers the northern parts of the town of Warrington and surrounding villages. The seat has been held by the Labour Party continuously since its creation in 1983. It was previously represented by Doug Hoyle (1981-1997), father of the speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and Helen Jones (1997-2019).

Political Career

Nichols served as shadow minister for women and equalities from November 2020 until September 2021, when she resigned citing personal reasons.

Prior to her shadow ministerial role, she served as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to shadow secretaries of state Tracy Brabin (culture, media and sport), Emily Thornberry (international trade), and Louise Haigh (Northern Ireland). A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs.

In March 2026, during a commons debate on the Courts and Tribunals Bill, Nichols waived her right to anonymity to reveal she was raped while serving as a MP. The comments came as Nichols criticised the government’s proposed justice reforms, which involved plans to limit jury trials to cases with a likely prison sentence of three years or less.

Nichols told the commons that she waited 1,088 days – nearly three years – to see her case go to court, describing every day of that wait as “agony”. She warned that the bill risked offering “false hope”.

Nichols said her public profile meant the “mental health consequences of my trauma were played out in public”. She said this led to her eventually being sectioned for her own safety, and noted that this was something she still “received regular social media abuse from strangers about to this day”.

Nichols went on to suggest that the government was “weaponising” the experiences of rape victims to justify its reforms.

Nichols stated: “But here is the kicker. In this debate, it feels as if experiences like mine have been weaponised and are being used for rhetorical misdirection in relation to what this bill actually is.”

She added: “Do not say that this bill helps deliver justice for rape victims until it actually, materially does.”

In April 2026, Nichols tabled an amendment to the Courts and Tribunals Bill which planned to strip out the government’s proposals to restrict jury trials. In place of the government’s model, the amendment called for the creation of specialist rape courts, which would retain a jury while adding a specialist judge.

She said: “My amendment seeks to get the government to make good on the promise in our manifesto of specialist rape courts.

“We know that it’s that which will help ensure timely justice and that complainants and witnesses have the support to give their best evidence – reducing victim attrition in the process and retraumatisation as far as possible.”

The amendment was reportedly supported by around 90 MPs.

In January 2026, Nichols told the Jewish Chronicle it was “madness” that Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham had been prevented by the Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

She questioned: “Given Andy’s track record in Manchester and, obviously, his experience when he was previously an MP, with Labour’s current polling position and everything else, you know, why wouldn’t you want someone like that back in Westminster?”

She added: “If you’re a strong leader, you shouldn’t be bothered about there being other ambitious people around you.”

In July 2022, Nichols said she had faced repeated sexual harassment from a senior Conservative MP.

In February 2021, Nichols said she was “horrified” by the “extent and severity” of antisemitic and homophobic abuse she has received since being elected.

She stated: “I think people on all sides of the political spectrum can be guilty of forgetting that MPs are human beings with the same sort of feelings, struggles and aspirations as anyone else.”

Nichols later called for “clear laws” to deal with “online harassment”, telling BBC North West: “I’ve had someone come to my office with a knife before [and] I’ve had physical violence against me.”

She added: “A lot of that has been whipped up by things that have been online.”

Nichols was a member of the House of Commons business and trade committee (2020-2024), the european scrutiny committee (2020-2021), and the european statutory instruments committee (2020-2021).

Nichols is a patron of LGBT+ Labour – a socialist society formally affiliated with the Labour Party.

Nichols currently sits on the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) on pubs, video games and esports, nuclear energy, interfaith dialogue and British sign language.

Nichols delivered her maiden speech on 15 January 2020 during a commons debate on a “green industrial revolution”.

In it, she said: “There is a tired adage that we do not make anything in this country any more, but while Warrington has a proud industrial heritage that earned it its nickname ‘The Wire’, it is not about being nostalgic about some halcyon days past. Warrington has a proud industrial future too.

“We manufacture a fifth of the world’s gin in Warrington North at the G&J distillery, which has been going since 1761, and there is a really thriving local craft gin scene with local businesses like the 3 Pugs distillery started in Orford.”

She added: “I am proud that Labour-led Warrington Borough Council has declared a climate emergency, and I will be working with it to deliver a green industrial revolution that puts power, in its most literal sense, into the hands of our community.

“We have a long-standing science and engineering base in the town. Indeed, it is not uncommon to run into nuclear physicists at the pub.”

In October 2019, prior to her election, Nichols posted to social media that Lazio football supporters filmed making Nazi salutes should “get their heads kicked in”. After her election, she defended the comment, stating: “As a Jewish person whose grandfather fought in World War Two, ultimately sometimes I believe that fascism has to be physically confronted”.  

Political Views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Starmer stand down: In May 2026, Nichols publicly called for Keir Starmer, the prime minister, to step down/set out a timetable for his departure. The move followed the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru.

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Nichols was one of 117 Labour MPs who nominated Lucy Powell for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Powell, the former leader of the House of Commons, was seen as a candidate representing the party’s “soft left”; she was supported by leading soft left figures including Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham. She secured 117 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), above the 80 required, and went on to win the election – defeating Bridget Phillipson with 54.3% of the vote.

Labour leadership 2020: Nichols was one of 22 Labour who nominated Emily Thornberry for the party’s leadership in early 2020. The election was triggered by the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn following the party’s defeat in the 2019 general election, which resulted in Labour’s fewest seats in the House of Commons since 1935.

Thornberry, then the shadow foreign secretary, was one of five candidates to reach the second stage of the contest. However, she was eliminated from the race on 15 February 2020 after failing to secure the required 33 nominations from Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) or three affiliated groups. This left Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Lisa Nandy as the three candidates on the final membership ballot.

Nichols went on to support Long-Bailey’s candidacy, suggesting she supported Thornberry to broaden the debate.

She stated: “I will be supporting Rebecca Long-Bailey for leader. Based on her solid performance at the Parliamentary Labour Party hustings, her vision for Labour’s renewal outlined in Tribune, and my experience of her as a former constituent of hers, I believe she has the most to offer Warrington and the country.

“As she is comfortably through to the next stage of the leadership election process, and fellow north west MP Lisa Nandy has also met the required threshold for nominations, I have leant my nomination to Emily Thornberry to ensure Labour members in Warrington North (and elsewhere) can decide from a full field of candidates representing a broad spectrum of views.

“I think it is vital at such an important point for our party’s future that we have the widest possible debate, and that as MPs we have a duty to facilitate that in a positive way. Whoever the members choose will have my full support.”

Factional identity and party tradition

Labour ‘reset’: In March 2026, Nichols was among dozens of Labour parliamentarians to co-sign a statement calling for a “reset” in the party’s internal culture and political direction. The statement, supported by an alliance of MPs from both the Mainstream (“soft-left”) and Momentum (left) wings of the party, condemned what it saw as the “insular, centralising approach” of the leadership. It called on Labour to rebuild “basic democracy, pluralism and fair process within our party.”

The intervention followed a series of by-election results in Gorton and Denton, Runcorn and Helsby and Caerphilly.

The statement said: “We stand against the insular, centralising approach of the current leadership that refuses to draw on the energy, talent and ideas of our whole movement, the continued underfunding of public services and local government, and the pandering to the talking points of the far right.”

It added: “We, the undersigned members from every section of the Labour Party – parliamentarians, councillors, internal election candidates, members and trade unionists, pledge to reset the Labour Party.”

Welfare

Welfare ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Nichols was one of the over 120 Labour MPs to sign the reasoned amendment to the government’s flagship welfare bill which aimed to reject the proposed legislation.

The amendment, in the name of senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, objected to the fact that the bill had not been subject to a “formal consultation with disabled people” and that “250,000 people will be pushed into poverty” as a result of it, according to a government impact assessment.

The motion also called on the government to wait for the publication of the review into the Personal Independence Payment (Pip), helmed by minister Sir Stephen Timms, and the independent review, conducted by Sir Charlie Mayfield, into how the employment of disabled people could be boosted.

In May 2025, Nichols had signed a letter warning the government that the cuts were “impossible to support” and calling for a change in direction.

The letter, signed by 42 Labour MPs, read: “The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over 3 million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected.

“Whilst the government may have correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work, they have come up with the wrong medicine. Cuts don’t create jobs, they just cause more hardship.”

Welfare vote (July 2025): Nichols went on to abstain over the bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Nichols voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Nichols voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

X letter: In November 2025, Nichols was one of 34 cross-party MPs and peers who signed a letter to Ofcom demanding an investigation into the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The letter, led by Joani Reid, chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on antisemitism, called on the regulator to determine whether the platform was in breach of its legal duties under the Online Safety Act following a reported surge in antisemitic content and calls for violence against Jews on X.

Before Politics

Nichols was born on 5 April 1991 in Romford, London, and grew up in Reading. She has three sisters and three step siblings. Her father has served as the general secretary of the financial services trade union Accord.

According to an April 2021 Vogue interview, Nichols first became interested in politics aged nine. She was reportedly “absolutely obsessed” with then speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd. “My parents weren’t big on having a TV, so the only TV I remember as a kid was the news”, Nichols stated. “I didn’t understand what she did because I was too young, but I loved her shouts of: ‘Order!’”

As a teenager, Nichols helped run after-school UK Youth Parliament activities with future prime minister Theresa May. At the time, May was Nichols’ local MP.

She told Vogue: “For six weeks in sixth form, me and Theresa May ran the Youth Parliament for the year sevens. I remember her trying to give me career advice and me being really quite snarky and mean.”

Nichols studied politics at the University of Liverpool, graduating in 2013.  

After university, Nichols worked for five years as a researcher for the shopworkers’ trade union USDAW, based in Salford and supporting workers in the Warrington area. She then worked for the GMB trade union as a national research and policy officer until her election to Parliament. While at the GMB, she was involved in campaigns related to Amazon and Asda workers and advocated for investment in low-carbon nuclear technology.  

Personal Life

Nichols is Jewish.

In May 2023, she told the commons of her diagnosis for post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).

Nichols stated: “Even at its best, it is a living hell. There is nothing I would not give, nothing I would not do, to go back to who I was before my diagnosis.

“My experience is not unique. This is the reality of living with a serious mental health condition. I am making it through as best I can because of the love and support of friends, colleagues and psychiatric intervention, but I know that, just as I am a million miles better than I have been, and there are many more good days than bad these days, I could easily relapse because of something I can neither plan for nor prevent.”

In an article for Politics.co.uk, published December 2023, Nichols called for a review of the “Schedule 1” status of psilocybin to facilitate patient access to treatments for PTSD and other mental health conditions, such as severe depression, addictions and eating disorders.

She stated: “Without rescheduling and allowing patient access, we risk not only being left behind in this field of mental health research, but – far worse – we fail the many, many people who, like me, currently just do not have good treatment options available to us.

“How strange that this is something the government could change, almost overnight, without spending a penny of taxpayer’s money. All the government would need to do would be to be brave enough to ask their advisers to give them the evidence.”

In 2024, PinkNews listed Nichols among a number of out LGBTQ+ parliamentarians.

Nichols identifies as bisexual.

Trivia

Nichols supports Warrington Wolves RLFC.

She is also an active runner.