Hamish Falconer is the Labour MP for Lincoln, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Hamish won 18,470 votes, representing 43.8% of the vote share. The Conservative candidate, Karl McCartney, received 9,677 votes (23.0%), while the Reform UK candidate, Jamie-Lee McMillan, secured 7,602 votes (18.0%). Falconer was elected with a majority of 8,793.  

The Lincoln constituency is considered the oldest constituency in continuous existence in the UK, first sending members to parliament in 1265. The seat acted as a bellwether constituency between October 1974 and 2015, consistently voting for the party that formed the government. Labour won the seat in 2017, before the Conservatives regained it in 2019.

Falconer’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Lincoln was Karl McCartney of the Conservative Party. McCartney represented the seat from 2010 to 2017 and 2019 to 2024.

Political Career

Falconer currently serves as minister of state for intergovernmental relations and European relations, jointly in the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

In this capacity, Falconer attends cabinet – one of the first of the 2024 intake to do so.

Falconer served as parliamentary under-secretary of state for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) from July 2024 to July 2026.

Falconer delivered his maiden speech on 25 July 2024 in a debate on the code of conduct and modernisation committee.

In it, he said: “Lincoln’s connection with the RAF has never since dimmed, and less than a decade later young men, including my grandfather, trained to fly at the RAF stations surrounding our city. To this day we are proud to continue to host RAF Waddington, one of the most important RAF bases.

“As for so many of my constituents, public service took me far from home, and I was surprised and honoured to be asked to return to the Foreign Office shortly after my election to this place.

“I know that my constituents expect me to do my duty there, as they do at Waddington and across the world. It is an honour to join the government, but before I speak from the Front Bench on Government business, I wish to send a message to my constituents: I am first and foremost the Member for Lincoln”.

Political Views

Factional identity and party tradition

Labour Movement for Europe: Falconer was endorsed by the Labour Movement for Europe (LME) in the 2024 general election. Founded in 1981, LME is a pro-European socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. It campaigns for a close relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The organisation refers to itself as the “home of the pro-Europeans in the Labour and trade union movement”.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Falconer voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Falconer voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Falconer voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Born Hamish Nicholas Falconer on 20 December 1985, he is the son of the Labour peer Charlie Falconer, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, who served as lord chancellor under Tony Blair.  

Falconer attended Westminster School. He studied human, social and political science at St John’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 2008.

Before entering parliament, Falconer worked in the UK diplomatic service for over a decade, primarily with the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development.

Upon leaving the Foreign Office in 2022, he worked as an associate fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank. He was a policy fellow at Labour Together while standing as a parliamentary candidate.

Personal Life

Falconer’s father is Charlie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton. His mother is Marianna, Lady Falconer of Thoroton.

Trivia

Falconer was appointed to a ministerial post in the Foreign Office immediately after being elected to parliament in 2024.