Flint, Caroline Louise (1961– )

British centre-left Labour Party politician, housing minister from 2008. She was brought into the government as a junior minister in the Home Office by Prime Minister Tony Blair in June 2003. She was made public health minister in June 2005 and minister for employment and welfare reform in June 2007, before entering the cabinet as housing and planning minister in January 2008 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown. She took up the post in the midst of a worsening slump in the housing market.

Her early career was as a policy officer with local authorities and unions. She was elected to parliament in the Labour landslide electoral victory of May 1997, representing the mining community Don Valley, in South Yorkshire. From 1999 she served as parliamentary private secretary to the Labour cabinet ministers Peter Hain and John Reid, and established a reputation as a ‘New Labour’ Blairite.

Born in Twickenham, London, she studied American literature, history, and film studies at the University of East Anglia. She joined the Labour Party at the age of 17 and was active in student politics, serving as women's officer of the National Organisation of Labour Students 1982–84. She worked for the Inner London Education Authority 1984–87, Lambeth Council 1989–93 (as an equal opportunities and welfare officer), and as a senior researcher with GMB Union 1994–97, before becoming a member of Parliament.