Meet Georgia Gould the smart young Blairite ‘heiress’ who could be Labour leader one day

She’s been called one of “Blair’s babies” – and, given Georgia Gould’s political pedigree, it’s not hard to see why.

How many other thirtysomethings can claim they were at Downing Street – waving a flag and wearing a “Things Can Only Get Better” T-shirt – when the former prime minister walked into No 10 in May 1997?

Or that they appeared, as a babe in arms, at a political rally in 1987 (the arms in question being those of Neil Kinnock)? Or that their closest ally and mentor is none other than Alastair Campbell, with whom they have holidayed since the age of five?

Indeed, if one were casting for “New Labour: The Next Generation”, then Georgia Anne Rebuck Gould would be a shoo-in.

And it seems Keir Starmer is of the same opinion. On Wednesday night, it was confirmed that the 38-year-old has been selected as the parliamentary candidate in the Labour safe seat of Queen’s Park and Maida Vale, next door to her beloved Camden, where she has served as leader of the council for the past seven years.

Few doubt that if, as expected, Labour wins the election on 4 July, Ms Gould will be sitting around the cabinet table before long. Such is her precocious talent that – despite having once vocalised nothing more than an ambition to become education minister one day – some are already talking about her as a future leader of the party.

Thankfully, the spotlight is unlikely to faze her. Gould comes from Labour royalty: her late father, Philip, was the renowned strategist, polling adviser to Labour from 1987-2005 and a powerful member of Tony Blair’s inner circle. Her mother is Labour baroness Gail Rebuck, also UK chair of the Penguin Random House publishing empire and Somerset House Trust.

Gould’s childhood, and that of her younger sister Grace, was as much about politics as the playroom. She started attending party conferences at the age of three and has memories of their childhood homes in west London and Regent’s Park, acting as a de facto hub for New Labour’s most familiar faces, while holidays were spent with the Campbells, Tessa Jowell and the Blairs.

Little wonder that Gould has described growing up in a “tribal Labour household” and says: “I was Labour before I even knew what Labour meant.”

She joined the party at the age of 15, while a pupil at Camden School for Girls, renowned for its New Labour connections. Alumni include her friend Alex Birtles, daughter of Patricia Hewitt; Sarah Brown; Campbell’s partner Fiona Millar; Paloma Gormley, daughter of sculptor and New Labour darling Antony; and the son (boys being admitted into the sixth form) of former Labour lord chancellor and “Tony crony” Derry Irvine.

Fiercely bright and well liked among her peers, aged 18, she spent a year as a full-time party organiser before studying history and politics at St Catherine’s College, where she succeeded her childhood pal Nicky Blair as secretary of the Oxford University Labour Club. She went on to work for Blair’s Faith Foundation, grafted at local community groups and became a school governor and trustee of a youth centre.

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Yet Gould’s ambitions have sometimes been as hindered as they may have been helped by her family connections. Her first political controversy came in 2009 when, aged just 22, she unsuccessfully stood for selection as a candidate in the safe seat of Erith and Thamesmead, supported by Tessa Jowell – leading to accusations that she was nothing more than a “red princess” using her father’s connections to get ahead.

The criticism stung. Gould told the Evening Standard, The Independent’s sister paper, that she had been “the victim of a well-orchestrated and vicious smear campaign” which saw activists break into a sealed box of postal votes. “Every day, I’d wake to articles in the media, and they came from both the left and the right, assailing me for being too rich, too young, too inexperienced, but mostly – too well connected.” The experience, she admitted, left her “quite depressed… I never wanted to get out of bed”.

In her defence, Campbell, her father’s best friend, called Gould “a wonderful young woman of deep values and convictions and whose dedication to Labour and progressive causes matches that of anyone I know, whatever their age”.

Any genuine nepo baby might have slunk away, their tail between their legs and taken her mother’s advice to become a doctor or an artist (painting being an extra-curricular passion), but Gould is made of sterner stuff, something she has credited her maternal Jewish grandmother, Mavis, who came from poverty in London’s East End and became a hairdresser aged 13, with instilling in her: “I’ve never denied that I’m incredibly privileged but that doesn’t mean I’m not a hard worker or genuine in my beliefs.”

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Passionate about local issues, she was elected a Labour councillor for Camden in 2010, aged 24, was leader of the council by the time she was 30 and has chaired the London Council’s Association since 2020. Her tenure has seen her navigate crises from the Chalcots Estate PFI-safety inquiry to Covid and the cost of living crisis.

In 2015, she published the book Wasted: How Misunderstanding Young Britain Threatens Our Future, drawing on two years she spent speaking to young people across the UK about their lack of political engagement. Called by one broadsheet reviewer “an urgent missive from a moment in time”, it reveals a maligned youth underserved by a political class; her manifesto for changing the lives of young people would surely be of interest to Starmer as he chases the youth vote.

“Yes, Georgia came from privilege”, says family friend Eleanor Mills, “but she didn’t go into working directly for the Labour central office – she worked her way up and proved that she understand how politics works at a local level.

“As a human being, she’s really warm and super impressive – she’s got the best bits of her mum and dad. She’s grown up at the centre of a web of all those connections but has a real social conscience. I think she’s the full package and could be a future leader of the party.”

Gould has also made time for family, helping to care for her father during his treatment for the oesophageal cancer that would ultimately claim his life in 2011, aged 61. Father and daughter were “mad-keen” Queen’s Park Rangers season ticket holders and attended almost every home game – a tradition Georgia has maintained since his death. She has said that the pair “fought a lot, agreed a lot. He gave me a strong set of values.”

This rising star of the party will surely miss the benefit of his political experience on the campaign trail over the next few weeks, but she won’t be going it alone. In 2021, after a long Covid delay, she married Alex Zatman – a former communications officer for the Foreign Office, a current associate at Freuds and, controversially, a Manchester United supporter who proposed to her in the rose garden at Regent’s Park.

It was, naturally, a day shot through with politics. The couple were married at the West London Synagogue, which was decked out in suffragette purple and green, by rabbi and crossbench peer Julia Neuberger. Guests at their London Zoo reception included Ed Miliband, Margaret Hodge, Sadiq Khan, Peter Mandelson and Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, as well as their friends from the north London smart set, local charities and Gould’s former Camden Girls’ classmates.

According to reports, Gould – who wore white trainers under her strapless wedding dress – walked down the aisle to Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love” and the pair departed to the sound of Alastair Campbell playing the bagpipes. Recent photos show her out and about accompanied by their nine-month-old baby in a sling across her chest – which suggests the future generation of New Labour is secure in her hands.