Katie Heggs

With maiden speeches made, budget choices defended, and a small army of staffers hired, which of Labour’s 231 new MPs have stood out from the crowd? 

On July 4th the British public elected 335 fresh-faced new MPs, among whom were 231 Labour candidates who had never previously been returned as a member of Parliament. They came from a wide range of backgrounds, and brought to the government varied experience, passions and APPGs – from paternity pay to English wines.  

Much was made throughout SW1 about the potential of those who had been newly elected, the ‘gangs’ (or groups) they had joined and the leadership credentials of a whole new generation of those loyal to the social democratic cause. This saw speculation from all shades of the press on who would ‘rise to the top’ and who would remain confined to the backbenches. 100 (and some) days in, we are armed with Hansard and ready to ask the question again. 

The new MP for Peckham, Miatta Fahnbulleh, is certainly another ‘one to watch’. Appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero just four days into her new gig as an MP, Fahnbulleh’s career prior to politics has been seriously impressive. She previously held positions as Head of Cities in the policy unit at the Cabinet Office, director of policy and research at the IPPR, Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation, and worked alongside ‘Tech bro’ Josh Simons as a Policy Fellow at think tank Labour Together.  

Another of iNHouse’s predictions of MPs who would ‘go far’, Miatta has gone from strength to strength in these first 100 days. She gave her maiden speech in July, and in her ministerial capacity in August, she met with executives from ten UK energy suppliers, consumer groups, charities and Ofgem, to address the rising energy bills faced by consumers this winter. In September, she was the minister of choice to speak at the inaugural Housing Community Summit in Liverpool, telling delegates that the government will look to prioritise social housing as part of its £6.6bn retrofit agenda, and in early November, fielded oral questions for DESNZ on Labour’s plan for warm homes and decarbonisation of public bodies.  

When Josh MacAlister took the reins of the newly created Workington and Whitehaven seat in July with an impressive majority of 13,000, he brought with him an OBE, buckets of charisma and plenty of public sector experience. MacAlister is the founder of Frontline, a graduate social worker training programme that was awarded £45 million in funding by the Department for Education in 2019, and in January 2021 chaired an independent review of children’s social care which is now being considered by the government for implementation, and whilst much of the detail is still to be fleshed out, in an interview with the Guardian, MacAlister said he was pleased by what he has seen so far and is optimistic about what lies ahead. “These plans show that government ministers are serious about reforming children’s social care,” he told the Guardian. 

MacAlister has featured heavily in the press over the past few weeks after choosing to use his Private Members Bill to open a conversation on young people’s mobile phone usage. Receiving backing from cross-party MPs, charities and education unions, the former teacher has called for the government to make legal changes to make social media and smartphones less addictive for children and to “empower” parents and teachers to curb screen-time. And whilst a total ban on smartphones was met with a resounding ‘no’ from Starmer, it’s in no doubt that MacAlister has already made his mark on this Parliament. He sits on the DESNZ and GB Energy Bill Committees and is the chair and registered contact of the Nuclear Energy APPG, reflecting his constituency’s proximity to Britain’s nuclear heart – Sellafield. 

Georgia Gould led Camden Council for 7 years and, upon election as a Labour MP, was immediately appointed Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office, pointing to a certain ‘star quality’ that even party higher-ups could not miss. The MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale was born into a family of Labour politicos and has clearly mastered the family trade. Gould was formerly the leader of Camden Council and her maiden speech paid tribute to the power of community in local government: ‘Despite 14 tough years in local government’, she told the House, ‘I have never lost hope, because every day I can see the power of communities’. 

Georgia’s role as Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office makes her responsible for public sector reform, oversight of government functions, Cabinet Office business planning and performance, Public Bodies policy and Cabinet Office arm’s length body sponsorship. She holds an OBE for services to local government and her passion for the topic continues to be reflected in her output in government. Delivering a speech at the National Leadership Forum this November, Gould thanked public sector leaders, saying that after being ‘in local government for 14 years’ she has ‘seen firsthand how hard things have been’.  

Lucy Rigby is yet another ‘rising star’ from the July 2024 intake, with the MP for Northampton recently being selected as Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Ministry of Justice after a lengthy pre-politics career as a solicitor. Co-chair of the Labour Growth Group, Rigby is also a member of the Treasury Select Committee and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, speaking in Parliament this term on various topics, from digital technologies in Government Departments to pension credit uptake.  

Rigby has been an admirable champion for her constituency of Northampton in the House and in the press, recently sharing an open letter to the minister for veterans and people, calling for a World War One soldier, Walter Tull, who was one of England’s first black professional footballers, to be awarded the Military Cross. She was, notably, chosen as a member of the Labour Together delegation flown over by the Progressive Policy Institute to meet President Biden and attend the Democratic Party’s National Convention in August 2024. Speaking to the BBC, Rigby described the event as an opportunity to “learn and share ideas” with her American counterparts. 

Another of iNHouse’s earlier picks for Labour’s likely ‘next generation’ of leaders is Dan Aldridge, Weston-Super-Mare’s first-ever Labour MP. Dan’s maiden speech was delivered in an October debate on the Carer’s Allowance. It was a poignant and personal intervention that spoke to his real passion for his constituency, having moved there from Stoke in 2001 after a rather successful family caravan holiday in which he says they ‘fell in love’ with the area. ‘I may still have my Stokie accent and a love of pottery and Staffordshire oatcakes, but Weston is now where my heart is’, he told the House. 

Prior to a career in politics, Aldridge was policy and campaigns manager at Stonewall, a policy officer for equality, diversity and inclusion and safeguarding at the Office for Students and, most recently, head of policy at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. Whilst at BCS, Aldridge helped the institute become an important voice in the sector amid a challenging time for tech regulation with the rise of AI and tackling online harms. He is now a committee member of Labour Digital, a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and Vice-Chair for the Hospitality and Tourism APPG. 

Another clear ‘one to watch’ is Nesil Caliskan, Margaret Hodge’s successor as Barking’s new Labour MP and former Leader of Enfield Council. Whilst the former Public Accounts Committee chair has left Caliskan with a big pair of boots to fill, the new member has had an impressive career in local government prior to her election and is certainly rising to the challenge. Caliskan was previously Labour’s chief of the Local Government Association and sat on Labour’s NEC from September 2023 until her election.  

She was the first Muslim woman in the UK to be elected as a council leader and is the first Turkish-Cypriot member of Parliament, a topic she paid homage to in her maiden speech where Caliskan spoke of her grandparents who fled violence in Cyprus and ‘sought safety in the melting pot that is London’s east end’. She compared her story to that of her predecessor, whose Jewish family fled Nazi-occupied Europe. Nesil’s new position as a member of the Public Accounts Committee means she is following in Hodge’s footsteps and holding the government to account to deliver value for money.  

Matthew Patrick is the Labour member for Wirral West and the final ‘one to watch’ of the 231 shiny new Labour MPs on our list. Patrick was recently appointed as PPS in the Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) departments, and speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, he described the work in both departments as ‘an agenda vital to Britain – transforming public services, fuelling economic growth and unlocking creativity by connecting up Britain’.  

Matthew is an officer of the APPG for Perpetrators of Domestic Abuse, which aims to provide members of Parliament with ‘information about perpetrators of domestic abuse and what makes an effective and safe perpetrator programme’. During PMQs in early November, Patrick spoke out about the issue of economic abuse, asking Starmer whether the Prime Minister and his Government would work with him to ‘introduce new provisions so that we can restore the credit files for survivors of economic abuse’. He made his maiden speech in July, where he spoke of his pride for the ‘rich history of Wirral West’, and touched on a wide range of topics from local hospitals to climate change.

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