Jo White


Joanna Ruth White is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw since 2024.
She is chair of the Red Wall Caucus of red wall Labour MPs in Parliament.

Early life and education

White was born in 1964 in Stamford, Lincolnshire. She has an identical twin, Deb Davies, who was elected as a Labour councillor in Newport, Wales in 2012. In 2022, she stated she had recently discovered their partly Jewish ancestry.
White studied at the University of Manchester, where she was General Secretary of the Students' Union.

Political career

White was office manager for her husband John Mann, the Bassetlaw MP from 2003 to 2019. She served as chair of the Bassetlaw Constituency Labour Party. She was a member of Unite the Union's executive for over a decade.
White was first elected as a Member of Bassetlaw District Council for Worksop East in 2012. She was appointed as the executive member for regeneration in 2013 and became Deputy Leader in 2015.
White was elected as MP for Bassetlaw at the 2024 general election, defeating incumbent Conservative Brendan Clarke-Smith.
In 2024, White founded a red wall group of about 35 backbench Labour MPs, sometimes called the Red Wall Caucus, of which she is chair. The group has had meetings with ministers, and after the poor Labour results in the 2025 local elections it lobbied Prime Minister Keir Starmer to promote policies on border control, tackling anti-social behaviour, slow GP access and the cost-of-living for the working-class.
White is a Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

Political positions

In May 2025, Jo White publicly urged Keir Starmer to “stop pussy-footing around” and called on him to announce measures including "a national inquiry into grooming gangs, a crackdown on immigration and investment in left-behind industrial heartlands." At the same time, White criticised the decision to restrict the Winter Fuel Payment to pensioners receiving means-tested benefits, likening the policy to the poll tax.

Welfare

White supported cuts to several benefits including Universal Credit and changes to the eligibility criteria for the Personal Independence Payment announced in the March 2025 United Kingdom spring statement. While endorsing the reforms, White emphasised that “the system must protect the most vulnerable”, but argued that parts of the welfare system encouraged “the feckless squeezing out the needy”. White also suggested that some families had “adapt to a lifestyle of living on benefits”.

Immigration

White has described illegal immigration as "The key issue in my constituency" and called for the introduction of mandatory identity cards to "reassure voters that illegal immigrants won't get a job or healthcare without one." In August 2025, White called upon the government to "act to shut asylum hotels sooner", stating: "We need to make it far more difficult for asylum seekers to want to come to this country."

Personal life

White married John Mann, Baron Mann in 1986, with whom she has three children. A former Labour member was convicted of harassment against White, including mailing her a dead bird in 2012.