Anneliese Jane Dodds is a British Labour and Co-operative politician and public policy analyst serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, and Chair of the Labour Party. She was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from April 2020 to May 2021, the first woman to hold the position. She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford East since 2017 and was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 2014 to 2017.
Born in Aberdeen and privately educated at Robert Gordon's College, Dodds read Philosophy, Politics and Economics as an undergraduate at St Hilda's College, Oxford and subsequently took a master's degree in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Government at the London School of Economics. She lectured in Public Policy at King's College London and Aston University. After joining the Labour Party, she unsuccessfully contested Billericay at the 2005 general election and Reading East at the 2010 general election.
Dodds was elected to the European Parliament at the 2014 European Parliament election. She resigned her South East England seat when she was elected to the House of Commons at the 2017 general election. She served in the Shadow Treasury Team of Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell as Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2017 to 2020. In this role, she supported calls for a confirmatory referendum on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. In April 2020, she was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer by new Labour leader Keir Starmer. She was demoted from the role in a reshuffle after the 2021 local elections, and appointed Chair of the Party and Policy Review. She gained the additional Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary brief in September 2021, following Marsha de Cordova's resignation.
