It is not only Anneliese Dodds who has an Oxford influence on Sir Keir Starmer's new cabinet.
The Oxford East MP has been appointed minister for Women and Equalities as well as a minister of state for Development by the Labour leader.
Oxford University has also had an influence on the makeup of the Prime Minister's top team.
Sir Keir himself continues the tradition of nearly every UK prime minister since the Second World War having studied at Oxford University after he attended for a postgraduate degree.
READ MORE: Anneliese Dodds appointed in Sir Keir Starmer's cabinet
Of the 25 ministers in the Labour cabinet, 40 per cent attended Oxford or Cambridge for university.
But his cabinet is the most diverse on record in terms of education background, analysis has shown.
The new Justice Secretary and former barrister Shabana Mahmood was also Oxford-educated.
Ms Phillipson was a star pupil with an interest in acting that landed her a role as an extra in Byker Grove before winning a place at Oxford University.
Byker Grove was a drama series which aired on the BBC between 1989 and 2006 following the lives and relationships of a group of young people.
A close ally of the Labour leader, Ms Phillipson came from a struggling single-parent family but says she was far from the worst off in her class.
Her upbringing shaped her approach to the education brief, in which she has outlined Labour’s mission to smash the “class ceiling” by removing barriers to opportunity for less advantaged children.
A rising star under New Labour, Yvette Cooper was relegated to the back benches during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership before returning to the shadow cabinet with her home affairs brief under Sir Keir.
Awarded a Kennedy scholarship after studying politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University, Ms Cooper previously served as chief secretary to the Treasury in the Brown administration.
Her marriage to Ed Balls, Gordon Brown’s close confidant, made them the first couple to sit in Cabinet together.
Ms Cooper has announced a series of pledges as shadow home secretary, including to clear the asylum backlog, create a cross-border police unit to crack down on criminal smuggling gangs and put 13,000 more neighbourhood officers on the beat.
Oxford-educated former barrister Shabana Mahmood is the new Justice Secretary, having previously served as national campaign co-ordinator.
Ms Mahmood is seen as a key ally of fellow former lawyer Sir Keir and is credited with playing a key part in preparing the party’s campaign machine.
Born in Birmingham with a twin brother, she has said her childhood dream was to become a real-life version of ITV’s Kavanagh QC rather than a politician.
She told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast last year how outgoing Tory leader Rishi Sunak promised to vote for her as president of the junior common room during their university days – after she targeted him in canvassing because they were both “firmly of the geek extraction”.
The majority of the Prime Minister’s top team – 23 Cabinet ministers, or 92 per cent of the total – attended comprehensive schools, according to research by social mobility charity the Sutton Trust.
Sir Keir said he was proud to have Cabinet ministers who “didn’t have the easiest of starts in life” and reflect the “aspiration” at the heart of Britain when the diverse educational backgrounds of his top team were referenced during a press conference at Downing Street on Saturday.
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