Markus Campbell-Savours is the Labour Party MP for Penrith and Solway, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Campbell-Savours won 19,986 votes, representing 40.6% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Mark Jenkinson, received 14,729 votes (29.9%), while the Reform UK candidate, Matthew Moody, secured 7,624 votes (15.5%). Campbell-Savours was duly elected with a majority of 5,257.

The Penrith and Solway constituency is located in Cumbria, North West England. The seat was created for the 2024 general election, formed from parts of the former Penrith and The Border, Workington, Copeland and Carlisle constituencies.

Political Career

Campbell-Savours is a member of the House of Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee (since October 2024). Pacac examines how the country is run, covering both the machinery of government and the UK’s constitutional rules. It is the principal select committee to which Cabinet Office ministers are accountable.

Campbell-Savours is also a member of the House of Commons modernisation committee (since September 2024). The modernisation committee is a cross-party committee of MPs that considers reforms to House of Commons procedures, standards, and working practices.

In May 2026, Campbell-Savours publicly called for Keir Starmer, the prime minister, to step down/set out a timetable for his departure. The move followed the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru.

In December 2025, Campbell-Savours had the Labour whip suspended after he voted against the government’s proposal to tax inherited farmland.

Addressing the commons shortly before the vote, Campbell-Savours said his constituents had “deep concerns about the proposed changes to agricultural property relief.”

He told the House: “Before the election, many farmers feared that the changes were coming. Some… contacted Labour candidates who reassured them, based on public commitments from the then [shadow environment secretary], that APR [agricultural property relief] would not be touched.

“I was one of those Labour candidates, and it is for that reason that I will be voting against the budget resolution enabling these changes.”

The Labour whip was restored to Campbell-Savours in March 2026. It came after the government watered down its inheritance tax plan for farms.

Campbell-Savours said that it was “about time” the whip was restored.

He added: “Whilst I am relieved to have the Labour whip back, I am more relieved the government delivered a major U-turn before Christmas. One I know will make a significant difference to many farming families in Cumbria.

“Having the whip removed is not a pleasant experience and whilst I have no desire to make a habit of it, I will always do what I can to look after our people in Cumbria.”

Campbell-Savours was previously appointed as a government “business champion” for facilities management in the North West – a role established in February 2025 to facilitate engagement between the Labour administration and the private sector.

The position was part of a network of approximately 40 MPs appointed by the Department for Business and Trade to act as conduits for industry views on government policy. The grouping operated under the oversight of Dan Tomlinson, the national “mission champion” for growth.

The selection of champions was designed to leverage the professional expertise of the 2024 intake of MPs, and the role was seen as an early step on the Westminster ladder. However, the scheme was reportedly scrapped in July 2025 following a meeting at 10 Downing Street. According to a Guido Fawkes report, the business champions were told that their services were no longer required.

Campbell-Savours is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for Hadrian’s Wall and human rights.

Campbell-Savours delivered his maiden speech on 11 September 2024 in a debate on building safety and resilience.

In it, he said: “I head back to my constituency for the conference recess knowing that I have many issues to tackle. Rural homes, many lacking modern home insulation, are in desperate need of government investment to help permanently bring down energy bills.

“Farmers are in despair, as trade deals have failed to deliver and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs struggles to implement its new payment schemes. The local health service is struggling to recruit the vital staff my community needs to thrive.”

He added: “My grandfather brought my family to Cumbria in the 1950s, and his work as an engineer saw him on the platform for the opening of Calder Hall, the world’s first full-scale commercial nuclear power station.”

Before entering parliament, Campbell-Savours served as a councillor at parish, district and unitary authority level – including on Keswick Town Council and Allerdale Borough Council.

Political views

Factional identity and party tradition

Labour Rural Research Group: Campbell-Savours has been listed as a member of the Labour Rural Research Group (LRRG) – a caucus made up of MPs representing Labour’s so-called “rural wall”. Launched in August 2025, the group’s primary aim is to ensure that policy is developed with a clear understanding of the distinct challenges and priorities of rural and semi-rural communities.

The LRRG, chaired by the Suffolk Coastal MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, conducts research and consultations to challenge what it sees as a “rural blind spot” in Whitehall.

Its first report, “Understanding Rural Britain”, surveyed voters on issues from healthcare and the economy to housing and the environment, seeking to build an evidence-based policy platform. The survey found nearly three quarters (74.4%) of respondents believe rural communities had been overlooked over the past 15 years. On the back of the report, Riddell-Carpenter stated that using the labelling rural voters as Nimbys (not in my back yard) was “toxic” and maintained “many people rightly despise the term”.

Living Standards Coalition: Campbell-Savours is also a member of the Living Standards Coalition. Established in July 2025, the group’s stated aim was to develop and promote policy ideas that directly reduce everyday costs for households, particularly in areas such as food, energy, housing and childcare. In an open letter published upon its founding, addressed to Keir Starmer, the MPs wrote: “Our constituents will ask one question at the next election: did this Labour government make me better off?”

They added: “To raise living standards, we support government interventions that will help to increase incomes and lower costs.”

Electoral reform

Proportional representation bill: In December 2024, Campbell-Savours voted in favour of the Elections (Proportional Representation) Bill – introduced by Liberal Democrat frontbencher Sarah Olney under the 10-minute rule procedure. The bill sought to “introduce a system of proportional representation for parliamentary elections and for local government elections in England”.

A total of 138 MPs supported the bill – with 136 opposed. Notably, 59 Labour MPs backed Olney’s bill.

Introducing the bill, Olney told the House: “First past the post is a broken and unfair system. This summer, the Labour party won a landslide election victory, securing 63% of seats in the House of Commons in return for just 34% of the vote.

“The system leaves millions of voices unheard and creates a divisive, adversarial political climate where collaboration is discouraged and accountability is often sidestepped.”

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Campbell-Savours 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

Campbell-Savours voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at second reading (November 2024). However, he went on to vote against at third reading (June 2025).

Ahead of the bill’s third reading, Campbell-Savours was the co-signatory of a letter to Labour MPs that argued the bill had been “drastically weakened” since second reading.

The letter stated: “The bill presented to MPs in November has been fundamentally changed.

“This is not the safest bill in the world. It is weaker than the one first laid in front of MPs and has been drastically weakened.”

It said colleagues with “any doubts about the safety of this bill” should “join us tomorrow and vote against it”.

Campbell-Savours was one of 14 MPs to oppose the bill at third reading having supported it at second reading.

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Campbell-Savours 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

Campbell-Savours grew up in Cumbria in the 1980s. He attended Keswick School and then Birkbeck College, University of London, where he studied financial economics.

Before entering politics, he worked in construction as an electrical contracts manager.

Personal Life

Campbell-Savours is the son of Dale Campbell-Savours, who served as the Labour MP for Workington from 1979 to 2001. He was subsequently elevated to the peerage as Baron Campbell-Savours.

His mother, Guðrún Kristín Runólfsdóttir, was from Reykjavík, Iceland.

Campbell-Savours is married. He has two children.

Trivia

Campbell-Savours had the Labour whip suspended in December 2025 for rebelling over the government’s planned inheritance tax changes for farms.