Emily joined the Labour Party when she was 17, motivated by her experiences being raised by her mother, a single parent living on a council estate. She has lived in Islington for the last 27 years and was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury on 5 May 2005. During her time as the local MP, she has helped thousands of individual constituents and has been an independent-minded voice for people in her area in Parliament.

In Parliament, Emily has campaigned against 90-day detention and for abortion rights in Northern Ireland. She served in the shadow ministerial teams of Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer, and in the Shadow Cabinet for more than a decade as Shadow International Trade Secretary, Shadow Foreign Secretary, Shadow Brexit Secretary, Shadow Defence Secretary, and as Shadow Attorney General.

Since September 2024 she has been the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons. Her Committee is currently working on inquiries into Britain’s role in the Middle East and soft power, particularly the BBC World Service.