Cat Eccles is the Labour MP for Stourbridge, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Eccles won 15,338 votes, representing 38.5% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Suzanne Webb, received 12,265 votes (30.8%), while the Reform UK candidate, Richard Shaw, secured 7,869 votes (19.7%). Eccles was duly elected with a majority of 3,073 votes.  

The Stourbridge constituency was created in 1997. Since its recreation, the seat has been considered as a bellwether, having elected an MP from the party that formed the government following each general election.

Eccles’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Stourbridge was Suzanne Webb of the Conservative Party. Webb held the seat from 2019 to 2024.

Political Career

In May 2026, Eccles was among the group of Labour MPs who publicly called for the prime minister, Keir Starmer, to resign or set out a clear timetable for his departure. The move followed the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru.

In a statement, Eccles said: “Excellent Labour councillors, committed community champions who worked tirelessly for local people for many years, lost their seats because voters feel this government neither understands the pressures they are under nor is acting with enough urgency to improve their lives.

“The prime minister has shown strong leadership internationally during a period of global instability, and that work is important for Britain’s security.

“But international leadership cannot become a substitute for delivery at home.

“We need a serious change of direction, not cosmetic resets or better messaging, but policies that genuinely improve living standards and restore trust.

“If the leadership cannot deliver that change quickly and convincingly, then Keir Starmer must put the country and the party first and make way for a new leader capable of reconnecting Labour with the people it was elected to serve.”

In February 2026, Eccles expressed criticisms about the government’s proposed overhaul of indefinite leave to remain (ILR) guidelines in a Westminster Hall debate. The session, which was triggered by two public petitions signed by over 330,000 people, focused on Home Office proposals to replace the established five-year pathway to permanent residency (also known as indefinite leave to remain or settlement) with a 10-year baseline under an “earned settlement” model.

In the debate, Eccles said the announcement of the reforms had created “considerable insecurity and disruption for migrants living in the UK.”

In January 2026, Eccles was one of over 60 Labour MPs to sign a letter to the prime minister calling for the introduction of an Australia-style ban on social media access for children under the age of 16. Organised by Plymouth Moor View MP Fred Thomas, the initiative brought together a cross-factional coalition of backbenchers – spanning the Socialist Campaign Group, Tribune Group and Blue Labour – to demand action.

The letter called on Keir Starmer to “show leadership” by introducing a minimum age for social media access “to protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms”.

It stated: “We are all strong supporters of technology, and of this Labour government’s ambition to use tech to improve lives. But successive governments have done far too little to protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms.”

Also in January 2026, Eccles was listed as a supporter of an amendment to the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, often referred to as the “Hillsborough Law”, that would extend the proposed criminal offence of misleading the public to include MPs and peers. Luke Myer, the Labour MP behind the proposal, argued that his amendment would mean “no-one in parliament would be above the law”, adding: “If politicians deliberately lie to the public, there should be consequences.”

Myer stated: “This amendment is a proportionate, carefully safeguarded response to a real democratic risk. It is not about stifling debate or political disagreement, it is about ensuring that those who seek or hold public office cannot deliberately and knowingly mislead the public without consequence.

“The polling shows that voters across the political spectrum expect parliament to act.”

Myer’s amendment won the support of 30 cross-party MPs.

Eccles is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for bladder and bowel continence care, cats, healthcare workers (chair) and visual arts and artists.

Eccles delivered her maiden speech on 5 November 2024 in a debate on the budget.

In it, she said: “My career in the NHS spans nearly 20 years. I have seen the best of our health service, but, sadly, I have also witnessed it crumble in front of my eyes…

“The impact of austerity on the NHS is what first politicised me. We saw procurement taken away from clinical staff, vacancies frozen, pay frozen, senior staff forced to reapply for their roles, older staff encouraged to take voluntary redundancy, and many more layers of middle management introduced, removing a lot of day‑to‑day decision making from clinicians.”

She added: “I am pleased that the government are appointing a Covid corruption commissioner to investigate fully fraud, errors and underperforming contracts during the pandemic and to ensure that the country is fully prepared in the future. It is also an honour to be in this place as the covid inquiry is published, so that I can speak up for all the NHS staff whose voices were not heard.”

Before entering parliament, Eccles was elected as a Labour councillor on Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council in 2022. She stood down from this role in 2026.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Eccles was one of 117 Labour MPs who nominated Lucy Powell for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Powell, the former leader of the House of Commons, was seen as a candidate representing the party’s “soft left”; she was supported by leading soft left figures including Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham. She secured 117 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), above the 80 required, and went on to win the election – defeating Bridget Phillipson with 54.3% of the vote.

Factional identity and party tradition

Socialism26: In May 2026, Eccles was a founding signatory of Socialism26, a political initiative and pressure group launched by a coalition of Labour MPs and general secretaries from several major affiliated trade unions, including Unison, Aslef, the CWU, the TSSA and the FBU. The group described itself as advocating a “programme for change” intended to facilitate a “progressive political reset” within the Labour Party. It called for a return to traditional socialist values and greater internal party democracy.

The initiative was built upon a set of policy demands, including urging the government to “recognise the genocide in Gaza”, deliver full compensation for the “Waspi” women affected by state pension age changes, protect civil liberties and embrace intervention to lower energy bills.

Socialism26 described this programme as “the bare minimum to ensure that the public can see and feel the difference a socialist government makes to their lives.”

Labour ‘reset’: In March 2026, Eccles was among dozens of Labour parliamentarians to co-sign a statement calling for a “reset” in the party’s internal culture and political direction. The statement, supported by an alliance of MPs from both the Mainstream (“soft-left”) and Momentum (left) wings of the party, condemned what it saw as the “insular, centralising approach” of the leadership. It called on Labour to rebuild “basic democracy, pluralism and fair process within our party.”

The intervention followed a series of by-election results in Gorton and Denton, Runcorn and Helsby and Caerphilly.

The statement said: “We stand against the insular, centralising approach of the current leadership that refuses to draw on the energy, talent and ideas of our whole movement, the continued underfunding of public services and local government, and the pandering to the talking points of the far right.”

It added: “We, the undersigned members from every section of the Labour Party – parliamentarians, councillors, internal election candidates, members and trade unionists, pledge to reset the Labour Party.”

Living Standards Coalition: Eccles is 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

Electoral reform amendment: In May 2026, Eccles was one of over 70 Labour MPs who signed an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, calling on the government to establish a “national commission on electoral reform”. Tabled by Alex Sobel as chair of the fair elections APPG, the amendment aimed to force a rethink of the first past the post voting system.

At the time, Sobel described FPTP as “one of the biggest examples of a broken status quo in UK politics.” He invited colleagues to join this “common sense call to take a fresh look at how parliament is elected in modern Britain.”

Welfare

Welfare ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Eccles was one of the over 120 Labour MPs to sign the reasoned amendment to the government’s flagship welfare bill which aimed to reject the proposed legislation.

The amendment, in the name of senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, objected to the fact that the bill had not been subject to a “formal consultation with disabled people” and that “250,000 people will be pushed into poverty” as a result of it, according to a government impact assessment.

The motion also called on the government to wait for the publication of the review into the Personal Independence Payment (Pip), helmed by minister Sir Stephen Timms, and the independent review, conducted by Sir Charlie Mayfield, into how the employment of disabled people could be boosted.

In May 2025, Eccles had signed a letter warning the government that the cuts were “impossible to support” and calling for a change in direction.

The letter, signed by 42 Labour MPs, read: “The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over 3 million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected.

“Whilst the government may have correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work, they have come up with the wrong medicine. Cuts don’t create jobs, they just cause more hardship.”

Welfare vote (July 2025): Eccles went on to vote against the 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

Eccles 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).

In a statement issued at the time of the bill’s second reading, she said: “In my varied NHS career, I have seen all aspects of death and disease.

“As healthcare professionals we commit to do no harm first and foremost, and as medicine advances at breakneck speed, we are able to preserve life beyond what could have been thought possible in the past. However, I’ve seen many times when preserving life seems harmful.”

During the bill’s second reading debate, Eccles intervened on a point of order during prominent opponent Danny Kruger’s speech, objecting to his use of the word “suicide”.

Kruger responded: “The value of actually have a bill in black and white is that we do need to see what the law really is: what this bill would do, it would amend the Suicide Act of 1961.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Eccles 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.

Palestine

Palestinian recognition letter (July 2025): In July 2025, Eccles was among the over 254 MPs to sign a cross-party letter calling for the government to immediately recognise the state of Palestine. The letter called on the prime minister and foreign secretary to recognise Palestine at the UN Conference then taking place in New York.

Before Politics

Eccles grew up in Halesowen in Dudley before later moving to Stourbridge.

She worked as a patient transport ambulance driver from 2004 to 2008 and later as a senior operating department practitioner in the NHS.

Personal Life

Eccles is married.

In March 2025, Eccles discussed her diagnoses of autism and ADHD in an interview with PoliticsHome.

Trivia

Eccles was among the group of Labour MPs who called for Keir Starmer to resign in May 2026.