People like Julie James

Julie James MS (born February 1958) is a Welsh Labour politician serving as Minister for Climate Change since 2021. James has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Swansea West since 2011. She served as Minister for Housing and Local Government from 2018 to 2021.

James was born in Swansea, and was raised in various places around the world with her family. Her parents had married young and they did not have more children until she was 8. Her sister, 8 years younger, lives in Swansea and her brother, 13 years younger, is the musician Richard D James (known as Aphex Twin). At the age of sixteen she joined the Labour Party and was the first of her family to study at university.

James first studied American Studies & History at University of Sussex, graduating in 1980. She then studied law at the Polytechnic of Central London, graduating in 1982, then went on to the Inns of Court School of Law in London to train as a barrister, passing the bar in 1983.