Olivia Blake.

Blake mounted one of the most sustained rebellions on the UC and PIP Bill of any Labour MP. On 9 July 2025 she voted four times against her own government — backing two defeated amendments that would have protected people with fluctuating conditions like Parkinson's and cancer, and opposing both the core clauses cutting disability-related benefit rates for new claimants and the Bill's Third Reading. She also broke ranks in January 2026 to vote against extending Public Order Act powers to cover protest near key national infrastructure, placing her among a small group of Labour MPs uncomfortable with the broadening of protest restrictions. On welfare, her voting record diverges from her party by roughly 60 percentage points — the sharpest gap in her profile.

Otherwise Blake is a moderately active MP — voting in 81% of divisions, close to but slightly below the Commons average — and a 97.8% party-line voter when she does turn up. Her speeches cluster around the economy and jobs, social care, environment, health, and energy. The stance data shows she is markedly more favourable to progressive taxation and workers' rights than to tougher criminal sentencing or restraining Lords scrutiny. She chairs the Climate and Nature Crisis Caucus and sits on the Environmental Audit Committee, which maps neatly onto her speech activity and her February 2026 public writing on climate adaptation and national security.

Beyond Westminster, Blake has been visible locally on water renationalisation — hosting public meetings and supporting a private member's bill on the issue — and previously raised dilapidated school buildings in Parliament after a constituent was hurt. The high-impact news items predate her tenure: coverage involving her predecessor Jared O'Mara's fraud arrest and tenure skews the historical record. Recent local coverage, spread across 73 articles over 90 days, is effectively neutral in sentiment.