Alison Hume is the Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Hume received 17,758 votes (40.2%). The Conservative candidate, Roberto Weeden-Sanz, received 12,350 votes (27.9%), while the Reform UK candidate, David Bowes, secured 9,657 votes (21.8%). Hume was elected with a majority of 5,408 votes.  

The Scarborough and Whitby constituency is located in North Yorkshire. The constituency, created in 1997, was held by Labour until 2005 and then by the Conservatives until 2024.

Hume’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Scarborough and Whitby was Robert Goodwill of the Conservative Party. Goodwill held the seat from 2005 to 2024.

Political Career

Hume is a member of the House of Commons backbench business committee (since October 2024). The backbench business committee is a select committee of the House of Commons that has the responsibility for scheduling debates on days set aside for “backbench business”. Established in 2010 as part of the Wright reforms, its creation helped transfer some control of the parliamentary timetable from the government to backbench MPs for the first time.

In May 2026, Hume 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.”

In the wake of the 2024 general election, which saw Labour returned to power after 14 years in opposition, Hume was appointed by 10 Downing Street as a “mission champion” for Yorkshire and the Humber – a role intended to cut across departmental boundaries and support Labour’s programme for “national renewal”. These “missions”, first set out in 2023 and subsequently given less prominence, included boosting economic growth, reducing NHS waiting times, tackling crime, establishing a publicly owned clean energy company and expanding educational opportunity.

Hume is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for autism (chair), coastal communities (chair), generic, rare and undiagnosed conditions, and Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire.

Hume delivered her maiden speech on 18 November 2024 during a debate on the Armed Forces Commissioner Bill.

In it, she said: “My late mother was born into poverty in Hull. Under a Labour government, she was able to retrain for free as a mature student to become a primary school teacher – a job she loved.”

She added: “Under this Labour government, I will play my part as we lift more children out of poverty, address the crisis in special educational needs and disabilities provision, and improve life for paid and unpaid carers.”

Before entering parliament, Hume stood unsuccessfully as a Labour candidate for the Yorkshire and the Humber constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election, and as the Labour candidate for North Yorkshire police, fire and crime commissioner in 2021.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Hume 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

SERA: Hume has been listed as a member of the Socialist Environment and Resources Association (SERA) – a socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. Founded in 1973, SERA is the party’s official environmental campaign group. The organisation campaigns on a wide range of issues, including renewable energy, biodiversity, air quality and the transition to a green economy. SERA describes its member MPs as “champions for the environment”.

Electoral reform

Electoral reform amendment: In May 2026, Hume 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): Hume 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 a statement at the time, Hume said that when the government “suddenly announced” that it would “legislate for a change in Pip and that claimants will need to score a minimum of 4 points in at least one activity to qualify for the daily living allowance I was taken aback.”

She added: “Basically, demanding that someone scores 4 in one area or their claim will be thrown out, is a mistake in my opinion – too much of a blunt tool.

“Not only will it discriminate against people with global needs across the board or those whose conditions are variable, but it risks costing the country far more in increased demand for social and NHS services. It also risks people dying, something we saw when benefits were slashed before.”

Welfare vote (July 2025): Hume 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

Hume 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): Hume 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, Hume 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 Alison Louise Hume in Bushey, Hertfordshire, she grew up in Essex and later Yorkshire. Her father was an accountant originally from York.

She attended Herts & Essex High School.

She then studied English and drama at Goldsmiths, University of London, graduating 1986, and later gained a master’s degree in screenwriting from Leeds Beckett University (1998).  

Hume worked for many years as a television and film screenwriter. Her credits include the feature film Pure (2002), the TV movie Beaten (2005) and episodes of BBC dramas New Tricks and Holby City. She created and wrote the BBC drama Rocket Man (2005) and created and wrote the CBBC series The Sparticle Mystery (2011-2015).

Hume won a children’s BAFTA award for best writer in 2008 for the CBBC drama Summerhill.

She has lectured in screenwriting at Huddersfield University.  

In February 2025, Hume spoke out after discovering subtitles from one of her New Tricks episodes had been “scraped” by AI companies for training purposes, describing it as “theft… on an industrial scale.”

She said: “This week, I discovered that the subtitles from one of my episodes of New Tricks have been scraped and are being used to create learning materials for artificial intelligence.

“Along with thousands of other films and television shows, my original work is being used by generative AI to write scripts which one day may replace versions produced by mere humans like me.”

Personal Life

Hume has three children, one of whom was born with a rare chromosomal disorder.

In her 2024 maiden speech, Hume told the House: “My son Edward was born with complex disabilities. Under a Labour government, we benefited from the huge investment in health, in education and in schemes such as Sure Start.

“At 25, Edward has finally achieved his dream of going to university, and today he is watching his mum achieve hers.”

Trivia

Hume is the first woman to represent Scarborough and Whitby in parliament.