Background
Allen was born in Notton, a small rural village in West Yorkshire and attained a degree in Astrophysics from University College London (Bachelor of Science).
Allen was born in Notton, a small rural village in West Yorkshire and attained a degree in Astrophysics from University College London (Bachelor of Science).
She succeeded Andrew Lansley, the former Conservative Government Minister who had held the seat since its creation in 1997, following his retirement from the House of Commons in 2015. Allen worked for 18 years in business, including with ExxonMobil and the Royal Mail. In 2014, Allen came a close second in the controversial open primary for the South East Cambridgeshire parliamentary constituency before, in October, being selected as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC), for South Cambridgeshire.
The seat was already held by the Conservative Andrew Lansley, then a Cabinet Minister, who had decided to stand down at the next general election.
The nearest candidate was Labour who took 17.6% of the vote. Allen made her maiden speech before the House of Commons on 20 October 2015, when she detailed criticism of proposed cuts to tax credits, saying, ‘because today I can sit on my hands no longer’.
She wanted to criticise the proposed tax cr cuts. Isabel Hardman of The Spectator described her speech as "truly brave" and "well argued".
Despite her speech she voted in favour of tax cr cuts, in line with the Conservative whip.
Allen claims she was inspired to get involved in politics after watching the scenes of the Tottenham riots and first became a councillor in Street Albans. She wanted to intervene before it was ‘too late’ to stop the changes to tax credits, even though she didn’t want to support the motion tabled by Labour because she disagreed with the party’s overall stance, whilst also not being in favour of the Government"s motion over tax cr cuts.
56th United Kingdom Parliament]
Allen was elected as Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for South Cambridgeshire at the 2015 general election. In July 2015, she was elected a Member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.
