Samantha Niblett was elected Labour MP for South Derbyshire on 4 July 2024 with 17,734 votes (38.8 percent) and a majority of 4,168 (9.1 percent), defeating Conservative Heather Wheeler to become the constituency's first female Labour MP. The last Labour MP here was Mark Todd, who lost the seat in 2010, and Reform UK took nearly a fifth of the vote.

Born in Nottingham in December 1979 to a detective father and with County Mayo grandparents, she spent over 20 years in the information technology and data sector, most recently as Head of Alliances, Channel and Ecosystem at the software company 1E, a senior industry role few MPs can match. In 2022 she founded Labour Women in Tech, a not for profit campaigning for the party to promote STEM to girls and technology careers to women, launched in July 2023 with Lucy Powell and Jonathan Ashworth. That advocacy was funded directly by the tech industry: she received £10,000 from Sumir Karayi, the founder of 1E, and £2,000 from Virginia Holden to support her expenses while campaigning.

She has served on the Women and Equalities Committee and joined the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee in October 2025, matching her professional background, and is involved with the APPG on FinTech. Her sex education campaign drew both attention and ridicule; the serious substance behind it, on consent, abuse prevention and sexual health, is real, but whether the presentation advanced or damaged the cause is a genuine question about political packaging.

Niblett's strengths include over 20 years of technology sector experience at a level most MPs cannot match, the Labour Women in Tech founding showing entrepreneurial advocacy, being the first female Labour MP for South Derbyshire, the Science and Technology Committee placement directly matching her career, Irish working class roots, and a 9.1 percent majority providing reasonable security. Her weaknesses include no ministerial office, no legislative achievement, the sex education campaign packaging handing opponents easy ammunition, not being from the constituency (she is from Nottingham), and Reform UK's presence making South Derbyshire a three way contest. At 46, with two decades of tech and the Science Committee, she has a distinctive platform. Whether the women in tech advocacy and the sex education campaign produce policy changes or remain personal brands will determine whether her career develops beyond the committee room.