Labour leadership: Stuff you need to know about Yvette Cooper

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Yvette CooperImage source, Getty Images

She's the daughter of a maths teacher, can drive a tractor, shares the bills with a bloke called Ed Balls and recently cycled around Austria in Sound of Music fancy dress.

But away from those serious things you see on social media, who is Yvette Cooper?

This page will tell you where the Labour leadership contender stands on some of the issues you actually care about*.

*We're not sure you're bothered about her tractor.

Before the general election we polled 6,000 18 to 24-year-olds in the biggest survey of its kind, carried out by ComRes.

They had to choose three government priorities from a list of 12.

The big topics were the NHS, the cost of living and education.

So here's where Yvette stands on these issues.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Yvette has some radical plans for spicing up Labour policy meetings

Yvette Cooper wants to allow local government to control the NHS which combines health and social care. She describes the NHS as "precious" but struggling".

She wants to create millions of new "highly-skilled" manufacturing and technology jobs because "in 2020 there will be 50 billion connected devices".

And she wants to help people with young families - she has three children herself - by creating more free childcare for parents of three and four-year-olds.

On housing Cooper has pledged to revive the "bravery of post war governments" by setting out plans to build two million homes in a decade - including new eco towns and garden cities.

Cooper wants to see a "revolution" in vocational education, which will get more people skilled up for a real job. In power she would support more technical colleges.

Random Yvette fact: Yvette took a year out of politics when she had chronic fatigue syndrome, better known as ME. She relied on welfare payments during this period and says it made her more angry about people being described as "benefit scroungers" or "workshy".

Find out more about the other Labour leader candidates: Andy Burnham, Jeremy Corbyn and Liz Kendall.

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