Prior to the Premiership, Davenport served as an MP from London's Merton borough, having won a special election in 2003 to replace the late Roger Axfield. He has been referred to as the "Kid Minister" or "England's Dick Van Dyke due to his youth, but since his emergence to national prominence as a part of Labour's Shadow Cabinet starting in 2006, has also been considered one of its most visible political figures and the figurehead of Labour's movement towards the center since its defeat in the 2005 and 2008 general elections, which peaked with Davenport's victory in the 2010 Labour leadership elections.