Alice Macdonald is the Labour and Co-operative Party MP for Norwich North, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Macdonald won 20,794 votes, representing 45.4% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Charlotte Salomon, received 9,944 votes (21.7%), while the Reform UK candidate, Nick Taylor, secured 8,229 votes (18.0%). Macdonald was duly elected with a majority of 10,850.

The Norwich North constituency is located in Norfolk, in the East of England. The seat, something of a bellwether seat, had been held by the Conservative Party since a by-election in 2009, and prior to that by Labour from 1997.

Macdonald’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Norwich North was Chloe Smith of the Conservative Party, who held the seat from 2009 to 2024. Smith stood down at the 2024 election.

Political Career

Macdonald currently serves as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Office for Equality and Opportunity. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder. Although they cannot speak for the government in debates, a PPS is bound by collective responsibility and becomes part of the so-called “payroll vote”, expected to support the official line in all divisions. Macdonald was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Macdonald served as a parliamentary private secretary in the Cabinet Office from September 2025 to July 2026.

In May 2026, Macdonald was among the over 100 Labour MPs who signed a joint statement insisting it was “no time for a leadership contest.” The letter was an intervention in the political crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s premiership, after Labour suffered heavy losses in the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru. It was organised as a counterweight to a mounting rebellion that had seen high-profile figures, including some ministers, call for Starmer’s resignation.

The statement read: “Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs.

“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.”

At the beginning of the parliament elected in 2024, Macdonald stood unsuccessfully for election as chair of the international development committee. In the contest, the results of which were announced in September 2024, Macdonald secured 132 votes, placing second.

They were ultimately defeated by Sarah Champion, who won the support of 430 colleagues. Champion was first elected as chair of the committee in 2020.

In their official campaign statement, Macdonald said: “I join parliament with more than 15 years’ experience in international development…

“In a world facing ever-evolving challenges and the need for every single pound we spend to deliver value and impact; the work of the committee is more critical than ever.”

Macdonald has sat as a member of the international development committee (2024-2025).

Macdonald delivered her maiden speech on 2 September 2024 during a debate on technology in public services.

In it, she said: “As important as what I intend to fight for is how I do it. Time and again, people told me that they were sick of us shouting at each other, and of adversarial politics. Norfolk is now a rainbow county; anyone who saw the election results will know that we have practically every single party represented.

“I promise to work with everyone and anyone who wants to get the best for our area.”

She added: “I am proud to stand here as a Labour and Co-operative woman MP…

“In everything I have done, from the local to the global, I have focused on fighting inequality and injustice, opening up opportunity, bringing people together to find solutions and working through differences.”

Before entering parliament, Macdonald served as a Labour councillor on Southwark London Borough Council (2018-2023). She also previously worked as a senior adviser to Labour politicians Harriet Harman and Bob Ainsworth.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Macdonald was one of 175 Labour MPs who nominated Bridget Phillipson 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.

Phillipson, the serving education secretary, was widely viewed as the candidate favoured by Downing Street and the party leadership. She secured 175 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comfortably exceeding the 80 required to reach the final ballot. She was ultimately defeated by Lucy Powell.

Factional identity and party tradition

Living Standards Coalition: Macdonald 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.”

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Macdonald 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

Macdonald 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): Macdonald 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, Macdonald 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

Born in Norwich on 1 April 1983, Macdonald grew up in Marham, West Norfolk, where her mother, Irene Macdonald, was a local Labour councillor on West Norfolk Council. Her father worked as a solicitor with trade unions.

She attended a sixth form in Cambridge and studied French and Italian at the University of Bristol, graduating in 2005. She obtained a master’s degree in international studies from SOAS, University of London in 2007.

Macdonald was a senior political advisor to Bob Ainsworth as shadow defence secretary in 2010 and Harriet Harman as shadow international development secretary from 2010 to 2011.

Macdonald then held roles in the charity sector and international development. She worked at Save the Children and as campaigns and policy director for Project Everyone.

She was campaign director for the Hungry for Action campaign from 2023 to 2024.

Personal Life

Macdonald lives in her Norwich North constituency. She has a twin sister.

Trivia

Macdonald is a Norwich City fan and reminded her colleague, Labour MP for Ipswich Jack Abbott, in her 2024 maiden speech “​that”while we did not make it to the premier league, in the time it took Oasis to break up and reform, Ipswich have still not beaten the Canaries.”