James was placed on the "A-List" of Conservative Party parliamentary candidates ahead of the 2010 general election,[8] and was selected as the candidate for the marginal Labour-held constituency of Stourbridge, from where she was elected. This made her the second "out" lesbian in the House of Commons, after Angela Eagle, and the first to have come out before her election.[7] In her maiden speech she paid tribute to Stourbridge's history of glass making.[9]