Anna Turley

MP for Redcar

Anna Turley is the Labour and Co-operative Party MP for Redcar, having returned to parliament at the 2024 general election. She previously served as the MP for Redcar between 2015 and 2019.

In the 2024 general election for the Redcar constituency, Turley received 15,663 votes, representing 41.0% of the vote share. The Conservative candidate, Jacob Young, came second with 12,340 votes (32.3%), while the Reform UK candidate, John Davies, secured 7,216 votes (18.9%). Turley was duly elected with a majority of 3,323.

The Redcar constituency is located on the Cleveland coast in North Yorkshire.

Turley succeeded Jacob Young, a Conservative politician, as the MP for Redcar. Young previously unseated Turley at the 2019 general election.

Political Career

Turley currently serves as minister of state in the Home Office. She was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Turley served as chair of the Labour Party and minister of state in the Cabinet Office without portfolio from September 2025 to July 2026. She previously served as junior lord of the Treasury, a government whip role, between July 2024 and September 2025.

During her previous stint in parliament, Turley served on the Labour frontbench as shadow civil society minister from September 2015 until June 2016.

In June 2016, Turley was among those to resign from the shadow frontbench in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and his approach to the Brexit referendum. In her resignation letter, Turley said that she and Corbyn, her former MP, had been “friends for some years”.

But she added: “1 am sorry to say it has become clear beyond doubt to me that you and your team are not providing the strong, forward looking and competent leadership we need to provide an alternative government to these increasingly right wing Conservatives that are doing such damage to this country and to my constituency.”

In the subsequent election campaign, as Corbyn was challenged for the leadership, Turley claimed Corbyn was “completely out of touch with reality”.

Turley also chaired the Co-operative Party between June and December 2019.

Turley has sat as a member of the House of Commons business and trade committee (2016-2019) and the home affairs committee (2015-2015).

Turley was unseated at the 2019 general election. Jacob Young, the Conservative candidate, won 18,811 votes (46.1%) and a majority of 3,527 of Turley in second place.

Turley blamed her election defeat on Corbyn and the Labour leadership.

In an article for the Independent, published shortly after the 2019 campaign, Turley wrote: “The message on the doorstep in this election was clear: the party was out of touch, the leader was weak, and we weren’t a credible party of government. Our manifesto was not affordable, our party had become nasty.”

She added: “To blame Brexit is to miss the point. There would be no Brexit if Labour had had credible leadership in the 2016 referendum, standing up for our party’s values of cooperation, internationalism and partnership…

“Despite 10 years of Tory austerity that has led to Dickensian levels of poverty, and the end of 175 years of steel-making in my constituency, people didn’t believe Labour would be any better. This is a failure on an epic scale, and a betrayal of those communities that need Labour most.”

Turley won a high court libel battle against the Unite trade union and Stephen Walker, editor of the Skwawkbox blog, in the days following the election. She was awarded £75,000 of damages.

Turley delivered her maiden speech on 3 June 2015 during a debate on devolution and growth across Britain.

In it, she said: “As we continue the debate this afternoon on devolution and growth across the UK, I remind this Conservative government, whose prime minister does not seem to know his Tees from his Tyne, that we already have a northern powerhouse in this country – it is called Teesside.

“I will do my bit in the House to put us once more at the beating heart of the UK’s industrial economy.”

She added: “I thank the people of every corner of my constituency who put their faith so decisively in me to stand up and fight for them in this place. I sincerely hope I can repay that faith. I hope I can make the people of Redcar as proud of me as I am of them.”

Political Views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour leadership 2015: Turley was one of 68 Labour MPs who nominated Andy Burnham for the party’s leadership in June 2015. The election followed the resignation of Ed Miliband after the party’s defeat in the 2015 general election. It was the first contest held under the “one member, one vote” system, which replaced the previous electoral college.

Burnham, the shadow health secretary, was initially considered the frontrunner. He secured 68 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comfortably exceeding the 35 required to reach the final ballot. He ultimately finished second in the contest with 19% of the vote, losing to Jeremy Corbyn in the first round.

Corbyn loyalty list: In March 2016, Turley was labelled as “core group negative” by the Corbyn leadership in a leaked list which categorised Labour MPs by their perceived loyalty. This label suggested the Corbyn leadership viewed Turley as a critic but not openly hostile.

Labour leadership 2016: Turley was one of 162 Labour MPs who nominated Owen Smith for the party’s leadership in July 2016. The election was triggered by a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn following the EU referendum, which led to a wave of shadow cabinet resignations and a vote of no confidence supported by 172 MPs. Smith, the former shadow work and pensions secretary, was ultimately defeated by Corbyn, who won with an increased mandate of 61.8% of the vote.

Factional identity and party tradition

Labour Movement for Europe: Turley is an honorary vice president of 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”.

Turley previously chaired the group and announced LME’s endorsement of Keir Starmer and Ian Murray in the 2020 Labour leadership and deputy leadership campaigns respectively.

In a statement at the time, Turley said: “Keir led Labour’s Brexit position with skill and diligence, guiding the party to the position we adopted at conference, in support of a confirmatory referendum. His personal position as stated in the general election was for Labour to clearly campaign to Remain should there have been a referendum.”

Tribune group (2017): Turley was listed among the supporters of the Tribune parliamentary group – a caucus generally described as representing the party’s “soft left”.

The Tribune group was initially formed in 1964 to support the newspaper of the same name. It served as a prominent forum for those parliamentarians situated on the left of the Labour Party – but it split over Tony Benn’s campaign for the deputy leadership in 1981. Benn’s supporters founded the Campaign group – which evolved into the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG). Today, the Bennite SCG is strongly associated with the Labour left tradition.

During the 1980s, the Tribune group emerged as a more natural home for those on Labour’s “soft left”.

In 2017, Efford officially re-launched the group with a new mission statement calling for “opportunity and aspiration” to be placed at the heart of the party’s programme. Efford said he had reformed the group to ensure that the centre-left of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) “have a space in which to put forward ideas and debate which has not been there under successive leaders”.

He added: “The view of Labour MPs at the moment tends to be that too much are just Blairites who want to stab Jeremy Corbyn in the back. We want to show that is not where we are, and that we want to develop our own ideas that represent the centre-left of the party.”

SERA: Turley 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”.

Brexit and Europe

Brexit referendum: Turley supported Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and therefore disagreed with a majority of her constituents, 67.7% of whom voted to Leave.

Article 50: In February 2017, Turley voted in favour of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill. The legislation empowered the prime minister to notify the Council of the European Union of the UK’s intention to withdraw, formally triggering the process set out in Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. MPs supported the bill by 498 votes to 114 at second reading.

People’s vote support (2019): Turley signed a January 2019 statement by Labour MPs calling for a “people’s vote” or second referendum. The statement, signed by 71 Labour MPs, read: “Defeat of the Tory [Brexit] deal in a public vote would give us all a chance to campaign for the anti-austerity policies and a Labour government that deals with the true causes of the Brexit vote, and a reformed Europe that works for all people.”

Remain pledge: During the 2019 general election campaign, Turley was one of 193 Labour candidates to sign the anti-Brexit “Remain pledge”, drawn up by the campaign group Remain Labour.

It stated: “Labour is committed to a confirmatory referendum, to give you the final say on Brexit. If elected as your Labour MP, I pledge to campaign to Remain in the EU.”

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Turley 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

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

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Turley voted against 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.

Foreign policy and security

Trident renewal (2016): Turley voted in favour of a government motion calling for the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent system in July 2016. The motion, which was passed by 472 votes to 117, committed the UK to constructing a new fleet of submarines to carry the nation’s nuclear weapons. Labour was split over the issue with 140 of its 230 MPs going against leader Jeremy Corbyn and backing the motion.

Syria airstrikes (2015): Turley voted in favour of a government motion to extend UK airstrikes against Isis from Iraq into Syria in December 2015. The motion, which was passed by 397 votes to 223 after a 10-hour debate in the House of Commons, authorised the RAF to conduct strikes against Isis targets in Syria.

Before Politics

Born Anna Catherine Turley on 9 October 1978 in Dartford, Kent, she gained an academic scholarship to study at Ashford School. She then read history at Greyfriars, Oxford.

Following her university graduation, Turley worked as a civil servant. She spent time at the Home Office, before joining the Department for Work and Pensions.

She subsequently became a special adviser within the Department for Work and Pensions for David Blunkett in 2005, moving to the Cabinet Office to advise Hilary Armstrong the following year.

Turley worked for the public relations agency The Ledbury Group in 2007. In 2008, she took a job as deputy director at the New Local Government Network research organisation.

She later founded the progressive localism consultancy ProgLoc and worked as a senior research fellow at IPPR North.

During her time outside of parliament between 2019 and 2024, she was a sports consultant for the Betting and Gaming Council. In May 2022, she became an associate director at the political lobbying firm Arden Strategies.

Personal Life

Turley married Joe Keenan in 2016. She has lived in the town of Redcar since 2012, having previously resided in Islington, London.

In 2017, she required emergency surgery and underwent five operations to treat infected cysts, forcing her to pause her parliamentary duties for more than a month.