Caroline Flint

In June 2019, Flint said she would be willing to vote to help Boris Johnson pass a Brexit withdrawal agreement.

In October 2019, Flint stated her intention to vote for the Johnson government's EU Withdrawal Agreement, contrary to the Labour party's official stance, citing its alleged inclusion of a "legally binding protection on workers' rights, environmental standards and consumer protection", a claim rebutted as "objectively false as a matter of law" by the Financial Times' legal commentator, David Allen Green.

On 19 October 2019, Flint was one of six Labour MPs, and the only one seeking reselection for the next general election, to rebel against the party line and vote against the Letwin amendment to the government's Brexit deal. She spoke to Isabel Hardman from The Spectator regarding the vote. Many of her constituents praised her for listening to her constituents.

In the November 2019 floods, Flint's constituency was hit with heavy flooding. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited Conisborough and Doncaster and viewed the property damage with Flint, calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to declare the floods a national emergency so immediate financial help could be provided to families in need.

In November 2019, Flint's daughter spoke out about a man subjecting her mother to malicious mailings for nine months. In 2018, she said one death threat had warned her: "You'll be hanging from a rope".

At the 2019 general election, Flint stood for re-election and was one of the many Labour MPs to be defeated. Flint lost her seat to the Conservatives candidate Nick Fletcher in the after serving 22 years in Parliament. She blamed Corbyn's leadership for her defeat. In her concession speech, Flint told voters that she was "sorry we didn't give you a Labour party you could trust" and attacked the "influential Labour figures, living in North London postcodes, who have brought us to this point." She also declared that, "Labour cannot simply be a party of big cities and university towns, nor just the party of the young or devoted remainers".

In October 2017, Flint defied Labour whips on the EU withdrawal bill. She told BBC Radio 4's Today, "I believe Labour's job is to improve this bill, not kill it as it begins its passage through parliament."

After campaigning for remain in the 2016 referendum on membership of the European Union, Flint was one of the few Labour MPs to accept the result of the vote in order to "allow the voices of her constituents to be heard". Flint supported Brexit as her constituents voted heavily to leave. She lost her seat to Conservative candidate Nick Fletcher in Boris Johnson's victory at the 2019 general election. Flint had served as the constituency's MP for 22 years. The Don Valley had been represented by Labour members of parliament since 1922. Flint blamed her defeat on "Corbynistas and Uber Remainers".

During the 2016 European Union membership referendum, Flint campaigned for remain. She supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn as party leader in the subsequent Labour leadership election.

Flint was reelected in the 2015 general election. On 16 May 2015, she announced her intention to seek candidacy for the Labour Party deputy leadership election. Along with Tom Watson, she was seen as being a front runner in the contest. By the time nominations closed on 17 June, Flint had gained 43 MP nominees, second only to Tom Watson, and more than enough to confirm her place in the ballot. She came third.

In 2010, she was elected to the Shadow Cabinet and Ed Miliband appointed her Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. From 2011 to 2015, she was Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. After coming third in the running for her party's deputy leader in 2015, Flint returned to the backbenches after not being reappointed to the Shadow Cabinet by Jeremy Corbyn.

Flint was reelected in the 2010 general election. She served in the Shadow Cabinet of Ed Miliband from 2010 to 2015.

She was moved to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the October 2008 reshuffle, to become the Minister for Europe. On 31 March 2009 she admitted that she had not read the Lisbon Treaty, the document which codifies the rules of the European Union. Critics described her admission as "extraordinary" and "unbelievable," particularly given that the minister's responsibilities include overseeing the introduction of the Treaty.

Flint resigned after the Cabinet reshuffle of 5 June 2009 asserting that Gordon Brown was running a "two-tier government", and believed that she had been treated as "female window dressing" though she had earlier professed her loyalty to the Prime Minister. Flint renewed her attack on Gordon Brown in an Observer newspaper article on 7 June 2009, saying that she was not ashamed of a glamorous photoshoot which had upset Downing Street. She launched a broadside against the Prime Minister, complaining of "this constant pressure, this negative bullying".

On 24 January 2008, Flint was promoted to Minister of State for Housing and Planning, and as a result would now attend Cabinet meetings. She was also appointed a member of the Privy Council and she relinquished her role as regional minister. In February 2008, Flint suggested that unemployed council tenants should "actively seek work", as a condition of their occupancy. In May that year, she inadvertently revealed grim forecasts for the future of house prices when she was photographed walking into Downing Street with her briefing papers visible. Close inspection revealed that her document read: "We can't tell how bad it will get."

As Public Health minister she was responsible for managing government programmes concerning radiation exposure, the potential bird flu epidemic, sex education, and the prevention of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV, and oversaw campaigns to tackle obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. She was also due to take ministerial responsibility for implementing the smoke-free workplace regulations in all public places resulting from the Health Act 2006, but was moved just a couple of days before it came into force (on 1 July 2007).

In February 2007, it was announced that she would be Hazel Blears' campaign manager in Blears' campaign for the Deputy Leadership election of the Labour Party following John Prescott's resignation. Blears did not win, coming sixth in the election.

In the Cabinet reshuffle of 29 June 2007 Caroline Flint moved to the Department for Work and Pensions where she served as the Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform. Flint was also appointed to the new position of Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber.

In 2005, Flint claimed her constituency home in Sprotbrough in Doncaster as her second home, and a house in outer London as her main home. She sold her outer London home to buy a flat in Victoria, London, in 2006. To buy the flat, Flint claimed £1,000 in solicitor's fees and £12,750 in stamp duty on allowances; the Fees Office paid £7,700 of the claim. The Victoria flat became her second home and her constituency property her main residence.

Initially joining the government in June 2003 as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home Office, Flint was moved in May 2005 to the Department of Health, with responsibility for Public Health first as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and from May 2006 as Minister of State in the same role.

In July 2001 she married Phil Cole, a former Labour Party regional officer and public relations professional, a councillor for the Edlington and Warmsworth ward of Doncaster Council since May 2012. They live outside Flint's former Don Valley constituency, in Sprotbrough. Flint employed her husband as her Senior Parliamentary Assistant on a salary up to £40,000. The practice of MPs employing family members was criticised by some sections of the media, on the grounds that it promotes nepotism. Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 were banned from employing family members, the restriction was not retrospective – meaning that Flint's employment of her husband was lawful.

In 1999, Flint became Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Peter Hain while he was Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office before in 2002 becoming Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dr John Reid, while he was Leader of the House of Commons and Minister without portfolio.

Flint was first elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in the 1997 general election. She was re-elected at the 2001 general election, the 2005 general election, the 2010 general election, the 2015 general election and 2017 general election. Along with several other Labour women MPs, she was a member of a tap dancing troupe known as the Division Belles (a play on the term "division bell"). She is a member of the Fabian Society and of Labour Friends of Israel.

Flint's first marriage was to Saief Zammel, a Tunisian stockbroker. They had a son and a daughter. They were divorced in 1990 after Zammel was arrested on charges of violent disorder. He was later deported.

She began her career with the Inner London Education Authority, as a management trainee from 1984 to 1985 and as a Policy Officer from 1985 to 1987. She was head of the Women's Unit at the National Union of Students from 1988 to 1989, before joining Lambeth Council as an Equal Opportunities Officer from 1989 to 1991, and then Welfare and Staff Development Officer from 1991 to 1993. From 1994 to 1997, she was the Senior Researcher and Political Officer for the GMB Union.

Caroline Louise Flint (born 20 September 1961) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Don Valley from 1997 to 2019. She served in the Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as Minister for Public Health from 2005 to 2007, Minister for Employment from 2007 to 2008 and as Minister for Housing and Planning in 2008. Flint then served as Minister for Europe during the time of the introduction of the Treaty of Lisbon into UK law before resigning, citing disagreement with the leadership of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Flint was born on 20 September 1961 in Twickenham, Middlesex. She was educated at Twickenham Girls' School, and Richmond Tertiary College before earning a degree in American Literature and History and Film Studies from the University of East Anglia. She joined the Labour Party when she was 17. She was the Women's Officer of the National Organisation of Labour Students from 1982 to 1984.

In the 56th Parliament, Flint was a member of the Public Accounts Committee and the Intelligence and Security Committee, the Administration Committee, the Education Sub-committee, the Education & Employment Committee and the Modernisation of the House of Commons Committee.