Alison McGovern MP

Alison McGovern had been the Labour MP for Wirral South since 2015. In 2024 she was selected to join Keir Starmer’s government as the Minister of State for Employment, in the Department for Work and Pensions. Her role focuses on supporting people back into the workplace, working closely with the Jobcentre Plus. She is not responsible for the government’s employment rights bill but the Department for Work and Pensions has led on some specific reforms to statutory sick pay.

Alison is a key driving force behind the government’s Get Britain Working and Keep Britain Working agendas. The aim of these agendas is to help boost employment - getting more people back into the workforce, with a focus on the one million young people not in education, employment or training and the growing number of people out of work due to health conditions. Engagement from employers will be vital to ensuring the success of this agenda, so this session, where Alison will be in conversation with Peter Cheese, will give frontline HR and learning professionals insight into how they can better understand and work with the government’s efforts to get more people into work.