Jarrow MP Kate Osborne joins Shadow Home Office team as Diane Abbott’s parliamentary private secretary

The Labour MP announced that she has been appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott.

Ms Osborne was selected from backbench MPs to assist Ms Abbott, who has served as the Shadow Home Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn since 2016.

The role of PPS will see her be the 'eyes and ears' of Ms Abbott in the House of Commons.

In her new position Ms Osborne has pledged to hold the Government to account on cuts to the police service and their “failure to tackle serious crime”.

The number of police officers in England and Wales fell by more than 20,000 between March 2010 and March 2019 – down to 123,200 officers – according to Home Office figures.

She has also said that she will use the opportunity to ensure communities across the country are “safe for all”.

The former North Tyneside councillor was elected to represent the Jarrow constituency in the December 2019 election with a 7,120 majority, filling the vacant seat of former MP Stephen Hepburn.

Mr Hepburn, who has represented Jarrow for more than two decades, was suspended from the party in October over historic sexual abuse claims.

Despite Ms Osborne’s success over seven rival candidates, the win still saw Labour’s majority drop from 17,263 two years ago.

A trade union and LGBT+ campaigner, she previously hit the headlines after posting a parody image on social media during the 2017 election campaign of then PM Theresa May, with a gun pointed at her – for which she has since apologised and expressed a desire to “move on”.

Ms Osborne announced the news to her Twitter followers yesterday and said she was “honoured” to take up the position.

She commented: "I'm honoured to be joining the Shadow Home Office team as Diane Abbott's Parliamentary Private Secretary.

“We must hold this Tory government to account on cuts to policing, their failure to tackle serious crime and to ensure our communities are safe for all."