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Hello and welcome to Women of Balls, where I Katie Balls, speak to today's trailblazers.

My guest today is a stalwart of the Labour Party from a politically active family.

Her career saw her work at various charities and think tanks before becoming executive

director of the social change organisation, the Joseph Roundtree Foundation.

Her first book, The New Working Class, How to Enharts Minds and Votes, brought her to the attention

of the Labour leadership. And not long after Kirstama's successful leadership bid, she joined

him as executive director of policy, a position she held for over two years. She now chairs the

Building Back Britain Commission

and is leading a project on the renewal of the centre-left at the Think Tank, the Progressive Policy

Institute. My guest today is Claire Ainsley. Claire, thank you very much for coming on the podcast today.

We've been keen to have you on for a while and we always begin by saying, was yours a happy childhood?

Well, thank you very much for having me on.

Yes, it was a happy childhood.

Certainly into my parents divorced in my teen years, which was a bit of a rough ride.

But we grew up in South West London with my

mum and dad until I was 13 and brother. And it was a very political household. So very politically

active, current affairs. The Ray Jo four was on all of the time. It was football and politics. And

that's what we talked about.

My mum was really active in the Labour Party. She was a proud old Labour person, really active in the

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