Antonia Bance is the Labour Party MP for Tipton and Wednesbury, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Bance won 11,755 votes, representing 36.9% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Shaun Bailey, received 8,370 votes (26.3%), while the Reform UK candidate, Jack Sabharwal, secured 8,019 votes (25.2%). Bance was duly elected with a majority of 3,385.  

The Tipton and Wednesbury was created for the 2024 general election, primarily from the former West Bromwich West constituency along with parts of neighbouring seats, West Bromwich East constituency and Wolverhampton South East constituency.

The former West Bromwich West seat was represented by Shaun Bailey from 2019 to 2024.

Political Career

Bance is a member of the House of Commons business and trade select committee (since October 2024). The committee scrutinises the work of the Department for Business and Trade.

In May 2026, Bance 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 November 2025, Bance was one of 34 cross-party MPs and peers who signed a letter to Ofcom demanding an investigation into the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The letter, led by Joani Reid, chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on antisemitism, called on the regulator to determine whether the platform was in breach of its legal duties under the Online Safety Act following a reported surge in antisemitic content and calls for violence against Jews on X.

Bance is a patron of LGBT+ Labour – a socialist society formally affiliated with the Labour Party.

Bance is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups for dying well and the West Midlands.

Bance delivered her maiden speech on 8 October 2024 during a debate on VAT for independent schools.

In it, she said: “In the Black Country, we work hard, but forces bigger than any individual – deindustrialisation, Thatcherism, and the cruel austerity of these last 14 years – mean that good folk there earn less and have fewer chances and fewer choices than people elsewhere.

“Fully half of our kids grow up below the poverty line, in infested B&Bs, in homes with damp dripping down the walls, or in flats made for two, but home to three times that… That has to change, and we will change it.

She added: “I will always stand against decline and for progress. After all, I grew up in a world where people like me could not get married, but now our beloved daughter has both her mamas’ names on her birth certificate.”

Before entering parliament, Bance served as a Labour councillor on Oxford City Council from 2006 to 2013.

Bance previously contested the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency at the 2005 general election.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Bance 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.

Bance co-wrote an article endorsing Phillipson alongside colleagues Michael Payne, Michael Wheeler, Antonia Bance, Jo White, Steve Race, Michelle Welsh, Tim Roca and Sureena Brackenridge.

The LabourList article stated: “Bridget is the right choice to be Labour’s next Deputy Leader. She embodies the best of our movement: authenticity, hard work, and a deep sense of service.

“From growing up in a single-parent family in Sunderland to serving as MP for Houghton and Sunderland South – a marginal constituency she has defended and won against the odds – Bridget has always fought and always won.”

It added: “Bridget brings the same strength. She delivers. She inspires. She wins. She will unite our party to take the fight to Reform. That’s why we’re backing her to be the next deputy leader of the Labour Party.”

Bance endorsed Ed Balls in the 2010 Labour leadership election.

In an LabourList article, she wrote: “Our new leader has many tasks. But the most pressing is setting out a fair Labour alternative to madcap deficit reduction and slash-and-burn public spending cuts.

“Under this government, inequality is racing already; it’s up to Labour to show it doesn’t have to be this way. Only one candidate stood up and told us how he’d do it, and why…

“That candidate is Ed Balls, and I’ll be voting for him.”

Factional identity and party tradition

Labour Growth Group: Bance has been listed as a member of the Labour Growth Group (LGG) – a vocal faction of backbenchers committed to ensuring economic growth remains the central mission of the government. The group, largely composed of MPs from the 2024 intake, positions itself as the voice of “the builders, not the blockers” and provides organised support for ministers taking on politically difficult decisions in the name of economic expansion.

In an open letter addressed to Keir Starmer, issued upon the group’s founding in July 2024, LGG MPs said it was imperative that “the government grasps the nettle and goes for growth”.

They added: “This absolutely has to start with the sweeping planning reforms to get Britain building again. Under the Tories, planning permissions for new homes hit record lows and housebuilding cratered. Indeed, not once in their 14 years in power did the Conservatives meet their housing targets.

“Energy and transport projects were promised but not built. That’s why we are writing to you to make clear that it’s in the national interest to start delivering on our manifesto promise, including 1.5 million more homes across this parliament at the earliest opportunity.

“A failure to act will not be forgiven by the public. Britain has a housing crisis and a huge infrastructure deficit – without strong and immediate action, this will only worsen.”

Living Standards Coalition: Bance 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 ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Bance 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.

Welfare vote (July 2025): Bance 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

Bance voted against 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 February 2025, Bance was one of four Labour MPs who sent a mass email sent to their parliamentary colleagues that accused Kim Leadbeater, the sponsor of the assisted dying bill, of portraying a “one-sided view” of expert evidence.

The MPs said the public bill committee scrutinising the bill received evidence that was “weighted towards voices that were known to be supportive of the bill.”

The email was signed by Meg Hillier, the Treasury select committee chair, as well as Bance, James Frith and Jess Asato.

In June 2026, Bance said it was “infuriating” that a fellow Labour MP (Lauren Edwards) had decided to re-introduce the bill after it fell at the end of the 2024-2026 parliamentary session.

In a post to social media, she said: “Absolutely infuriating that one of my colleagues has decided that what Parliament should focus on in the coming months – given everything going on in the world and here at home – is bringing back the assisted dying bill. Head in hands.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Bance 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

Born Antonia Kay Bance in January 1980, she graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in history. While at Oxford, she was vice president of the Student Union.  

Bance worked extensively in campaigns and communications roles for the trade union movement and charities.

She was head of campaigns and communications for the Trades Union Congress (TUC), where she led campaigns including opposition to the Trade Union Act 2016.

Bance was also director of policy and communications for the domestic violence charity SafeLives (2014-2015) and head of campaigns for Shelter (2011-2014).

Bance also worked on campaigning and public policy for the Diana Memorial Fund, Oxfam and YWCA.

Personal Life

Bance has a daughter.

In 2024, PinkNews listed Bance among a number of out LGBTQ+ parliamentarians.

Trivia

While at the Trades Union Congress, Bance helped create the “WorkSmart” app – a digital tool aimed at workers aged 21-30.