Who is Natascha?

Natascha was born and raised in Berlin, Germany. She was elected as Labour MP for North East Derbyshire in May 2005 when she took over from Harry Barnes, who had been MP for the previous 18 years.

She has three sons, Malek, Anton and Lukas, and is married to Dave who is a vet.

Before she became an MP, Natascha worked on the political wing of the trade union movement.

Natascha first became involved in politics through the union movement. She worked as a subtitler for Teletext for deaf and hearing-impaired people, where she joined BECTU and became an activist.

Up to 2003, Natascha set up the Trade Union Co-ordinating Committee which brought all unions with Political Funds together to run a joint Political Fund Ballot campaign.

Before this, Natascha spent a year working at the Smith Institute, a think tank set up in memory of the late Labour leader John Smith. Natascha was Programme Director and focused on Regional Economic Policy, women at work, and Employment and Skills policies.

From 1998 up to the 2001 General Election, Natascha worked in the Trade Union Liaison Office at the Labour Party starting out as Policy Co-ordinator and eventually taking over as Trade Union Liaison Officer for the General Election.

After this she joined the first intake of the TUC’s flagship Organising Academy where she worked as an organiser for the print union, GPMU, now part of Unite.

Natascha’s political interests include youth policy, welfare rights, constitutional and Parliamentary reform, energy and climate change. She was a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee from 2005 to 2007 and, more recently, she was a member of the Select Committee on the Reform of the House of Commons.