The Rt Hon Baroness Winterton of Doncaster DBE
Biography
Baroness Winterton of Doncaster was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Indo-Pacific at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in July 2026.
Previously, she served as Member of Parliament for Doncaster Central from 1997 to 2024 and was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 2017 to 2024. She entered the House of Lords in 2024.
Baroness Winterton is a Labour life peer with extensive experience in government, Parliament and public policy. Prior to entering Parliament in 1997 as an MP for Doncaster Central, she worked in public affairs, and as a senior political adviser to John Prescott.
She entered government in 2001 as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Lord Chancellor’s Department before serving in a range of ministerial roles, including at the Department of Health, the Department for Transport, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department for Communities and Local Government. She also served as Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber.
Following the 2010 general election, Baroness Winterton served as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and later as Labour Chief Whip. She was elected as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons in 2017 and was re-elected in 2020, serving until 2024.
She was appointed to the Privy Council in 2006 and was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2016. She chose not to stand in the 2024 general election and subsequently joined the House of Lords, after she was created Baroness Winterton of Doncaster in 2024. More recently, she served as the UK’s Trade Envoy to Bangladesh.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State has responsibility for:
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Indo-Pacific
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Small Island Developing States
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migration
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legal and treaties