Hollie Ridley has announced she will stand down as Labour’s general secretary after two years in the role.
Ms Ridley, a key ally of Sir Keir Starmer, who ran Labour’s field operations in the 2024 general election, told party staff on Friday that she would be standing down in the autumn.
She told colleagues she was stepping down partly for personal reasons and also to allow Labour’s ruling national executive committee to choose a new general secretary to work with the party’s new leader, widely expected to be Andy Burnham.
It is understood that she has been in contact with Mr Burnham’s team and other prospective leadership candidates to notify them of her decision and stress her commitment to supporting the next prime minister.
Paying tribute to Ms Ridley, Sir Keir Starmer described her as “one of the most formidable campaigners the Labour Party has ever produced”.
He said: “She built and led the ground campaign that delivered our general election victory and allowed us to start changing Britain, and as general secretary she has served our party with distinction.
“I want to thank her for everything she has done for our party, our country, and for me as leader. I am proud to have worked alongside her, and wish her the very best for what comes next.”
Ms Ridley, also an ally of Morgan McSweeney, has faced some criticism from within the party in recent months over what some claimed was a failure to take the Green Party threat seriously enough during the Gorton and Denton by election.
Party chairwoman Anna Turley said Ms Ridley was a “trailblazing campaigner” who was “held in the highest regard by party staff, Labour members and the whole of our movement”.
Ms Turley added; “I have scarcely met someone with more determination, skill and fierce commitment to supporting other working-class women to rise to the top of their game.”
Described as a trailblazer for senior women in the party, she will leave after Labour’s annual conference in September, having worked for the party for almost 16 years.
The daughter of a family support worker and a lorry driver, Ms Ridley grew up in Dagenham and began working for the party as a trainee organiser in 2011.
Rising through the ranks over the next decade, she has also been credited with expanding opportunities for women in Labour, delivering the first two rounds of the party’s Jo Cox Women in Leadership programme.
Ms Ridley went on to run Labour’s field operations in the 2024 general election before being appointed general secretary in September that year.
