Helena Dollimore is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Hastings and Rye, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Dollimore won 19,134 votes, representing 41.6% of the vote. The Conservative Party candidate, Sally-Ann Hart, received 10,481 votes (22.8%), while the Reform UK candidate, Lucian Fernando, secured 7,401 votes (16.1%). Dollimore was duly elected with a majority of 8,653 votes.

The Hastings and Rye constituency is located in East Sussex. It is considered a marginal seat, having been represented by the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2024 (Sally-Ann Hart and previously Amber Rudd), and by the Labour Party from 1997 to 2010 (Michael Foster).

Political Career

Dollimore served as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Treasury from September 2025 to July 2026. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs.

Dollimore left government as part of the July 2026 reshuffle conducted by Andy Burnham upon his appointment as prime minister.

In May 2026, Dollimore was among the over 100 Labour MPs who signed a joint statement insisting it was “no time for a leadership contest.” The letter was an intervention in the political crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s premiership, after Labour suffered heavy losses in the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru. It was organised as a counterweight to a mounting rebellion that had seen high-profile figures, including some ministers, call for Starmer’s resignation.

The statement read: “Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs.

“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.”

Dollimore was appointed as a government “business champion” for FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) in the South East – a role established in February 2025 to facilitate engagement between the Labour administration and the private sector. The position was part of a network of approximately 40 MPs appointed by the Department for Business and Trade to act as conduits for industry views on government policy. The grouping operated under the oversight of Dan Tomlinson, the national “mission champion” for growth.

The selection of champions was designed to leverage the professional expertise of the 2024 intake of MPs, and the role was seen as an early step on the Westminster ladder. However, the scheme was reportedly scrapped in July 2025 following a meeting at 10 Downing Street. According to a Guido Fawkes report, the business champions were told that their services were no longer required.

Dollimore served as a member of the environment food and rural affairs committee from October 2024 to November 2025.

Dollimore delivered her maiden speech on 23 July 2024 in a debate on immigration and home affairs.

In it, she said: “Before joining this House, I had the privilege of seeing that up close in many different countries as an aid worker with Save the Children.”

“It is always children who suffer the most in war and conflict. I have sat with young mums in Yemen holding their starving babies, so hungry that they do not have the energy to cry, and have heard harrowing stories from Rohingya women who have fled ethnic cleansing and sexual violence at the hands of the Myanmar military.”

She added: “We must redouble our efforts to bring about peaceful solutions to all these conflicts, and must remember that all the global issues we face, from climate change to migration, can only be solved by working across borders with our international allies and through strong, multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.”

Before entering parliament, Dollimore served as a Labour councillor on the Merton London Borough Council from 2021 until 2024.

Political views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Dollimore was one of 175 Labour MPs who nominated Bridget Phillipson 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.

Phillipson, the serving education secretary, was widely viewed as the candidate favoured by Downing Street and the party leadership. She secured 175 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comfortably exceeding the 80 required to reach the final ballot. She was ultimately defeated by Lucy Powell.

Factional identity and party tradition

Usdaw: Dollimore is listed as secretary of the Usdaw Union Parliamentary Group – a group of MPs who are members of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) and work generally to represent the union’s interests within parliament.

Trade Union Group: Dollimore is a member of the Trade Union Group of Labour MPs executive. This long-standing group, founded in 1926, serves as a link between the Labour party and the trade union movement, aiming to ensure that the voices of working people and their unions are represented in parliament.

Labour Growth Group: Dollimore has been listed as a member of the Labour Growth Group (LGG) – a vocal faction of backbenchers committed to ensuring economic growth remains the central mission of the government. The group, largely composed of MPs from the 2024 intake, positions itself as the voice of “the builders, not the blockers” and provides organised support for ministers taking on politically difficult decisions in the name of economic expansion.

In an open letter addressed to Keir Starmer, issued upon the group’s founding in July 2024, LGG MPs said it was imperative that “the government grasps the nettle and goes for growth”.

They added: “This absolutely has to start with the sweeping planning reforms to get Britain building again. Under the Tories, planning permissions for new homes hit record lows and housebuilding cratered. Indeed, not once in their 14 years in power did the Conservatives meet their housing targets.

“Energy and transport projects were promised but not built. That’s why we are writing to you to make clear that it’s in the national interest to start delivering on our manifesto promise, including 1.5 million more homes across this parliament at the earliest opportunity.

“A failure to act will not be forgiven by the public. Britain has a housing crisis and a huge infrastructure deficit – without strong and immediate action, this will only worsen.”

Get Britain Working Group: Dollimore has also been listed as a member of the Get Britain Working Group of Labour MPs – a caucus supportive of the Starmer leadership’s position on welfare. The group argues for a “new social contract built on employment and opportunity”, focusing on the rising number of people out of the workforce due to long-term sickness.

In an open letter, issued upon the group’s founding in March 2025, the group expressed its support for the government’s welfare measures set out in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. The bill was subject to a significant revolt of over 120 Labour MPs – which forced ministers into a series of concessions shortly before its first vote in the House of Commons.

Ahead of the bill’s fraught second reading debate, the MPs wrote: “Our Labour values are built on a simple but powerful idea: that every individual, regardless of background or circumstance, should have the support they need to make the most of their lives.

“Everyone who is capable of working deserves the security, dignity and agency that employment offers. Of course, there are some people who are not able to work and they must be treated with compassion and respect. But for those that can, we must restore the pathways to opportunity which are currently so sparse for millions of people.

“It is exactly what a Labour government exists to do.”

Labour Movement for Europe: Dollimore was endorsed by the Labour Movement for Europe (LME) in the 2024 general election. Founded in 1981, LME is a pro-European socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. It campaigns for a close relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The organisation refers to itself as the “home of the pro-Europeans in the Labour and trade union movement”.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Dollimore voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare 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

Dollimore 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).

In a statement setting out her position, issued after the bill’s second reading, Dollimore said: “I believe that this debate is fundamentally about choice, and having choice and control about how your life ends when you are diagnosed with a terminal illness. Ultimately, what has moved me most in making up my mind is the principle that this bill is not about ending life but about shortening death.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Dollimore 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.

Before Politics

Born in Brighton in 1994, Dollimore grew up in East Sussex and attended Heathfield Community College. She studied history and politics at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, where she was chair of the Oxford University Labour Club.

After university, Dollimore worked for the charity Save the Children, including work in overseas locations. She subsequently worked as a senior manager at Unilever.

Personal Life

Dollimore lives in her Hastings and Rye constituency.

Trivia

Dollimore first gained public attention following a speech she delivered at the Labour Party Conference in 2011, aged 17. The Daily Mirror reported that Dollimore “captivated the Labour conference”.