Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern is a New Zealand politician. She is the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party. First elected to the House of Representatives as a list MP in 2008, she has been the member of Parliament for Mount Albert since March 2017. She led her party to gain 14 seats at the 2017 general election, winning 46 seats to the National Party’s 56. She became the world’s youngest female head of government at age 37.

About Jacinda Ardern in brief

Summary Jacinda ArdernJacinda Kate Laurell Ardern (born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician. She has been serving as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party since 2017. First elected to the House of Representatives as a list MP in 2008, she has been the member of Parliament for Mount Albert since March 2017. She led her party to gain 14 seats at the 2017 general election on 23 September, winning 46 seats to the National Party’s 56. She became the world’s youngest female head of government at age 37. She later became the second elected head ofgovernment to give birth while in office when her daughter was born on 21 June 2018. The Sixth Labour Government has focused particularly on the New Zealand housing crisis, child poverty, and social inequality. In March 2019, she led the country through the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, rapidly introducing strict gun laws in response, and throughout 2020 she directed the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She describes herself as a social democrat and a progressive. She was brought into politics by her aunt, a longstanding member of theLabour Party, who recruited her to help her with campaigning for New Plymouth MP Harry Duynhoven during his re-election campaign at the 1999 general election. She joined the Labour party at the age of 17, and became a senior figure in the Young Labour sector of the party. She is married to former New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English and is the mother of a daughter, a son, and a stepdaughter.

She lives in Auckland with her husband, Bill English, and her daughter, Aimee, and has a son and daughter-in-law, both of whom are also politicians. She also has two step-children, a step-son and a son-grandson. She works as a public relations consultant, and was previously a researcher for the Prime Minister’s office and the International Union of Socialist Youth. In early 2008 she was elected the president of the international union. In the 2008 election, she was ranked 20th on Labour’s party list, a very high placement for someone who was not sitting in Parliament. Upon election she became the youngest sitting MP, succeeding fellow Labour MP Darren Hughes, and remained the youngest until the election of Gareth Hughes in 2011. In 2012 she was unsuccessful in the safe National electorate of Waikato, but remained on the party’s list until the 2015 general election, when she was re-elected. In February 2017 she was unanimously elected to represent the Mount Albert electorate in a by-election in February 2017, following the resignation of Annette King. Just five months later, with an election due, Labour’s leader Andrew Little resigned after a historically low opinion polling result for the party, with ArderN elected unopposed as leader in his place. In October 2017, New Zealand First chose to enter a minority coalition government with Labour, supported by the Green Party; she was sworn in by the Governor-General on 26 October 2017.