Chris Curtis is the Labour Party MP for Milton Keynes North, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Curtis received 19,318 votes (42.0%). The Conservative candidate, Ben Everitt, won 13,888 votes (30.2%), while the Reform UK candidate, Jane Duckworth, secured 6,164 votes (13.4%). Curtis was duly elected with a majority of 5,430.

The Milton Keynes North constituency is located in Buckinghamshire, South East England. Created in 2010, the seat was held continuously by the Conservatives until 2024.

Curtis’ immediate predecessor as the MP for Milton Keynes North was Ben Everitt of the Conservative Party. Everitt represented the seat from 2019 to 2024.

Political Career

Curtis is a member of the House of Commons housing, communities and local government select committee (since October 2024) – the committee responsible for scrutinising the policy, spending, and administration of the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government and its associated public bodies.

In May 2026, Curtis publicly called for Keir Starmer, the prime minister, to step down/set out a timetable for his departure. The move followed the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru.

Curtis, seen as a leading backbencher, delivered his intervention in an interview with Sky News. He said Starmer could not deliver the change the country needed and that it was “time for us to look for new leadership.”

Curtis added: “I think what that means is the prime minister rightly now setting out a timetable and an orderly process for a leadership election, and one in which Labour has a discussion about the vision for the country and what changes we think are needed in order to face the very real challenges that Britain currently faces.”

Curtis served as chair of the Labour Growth Group (LGG), a vocal faction of backbenchers committed to ensuring economic growth remained the central mission of the government, from July 2024 to June 2026.

The group, largely composed of MPs from the 2024 intake, positioned itself as the voice of “the builders, not the blockers” under Curtis’ leadership. In an open letter addressed to 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.”

Curtis was appointed as the co-chair of the LGG upon its founding.

He told the Times newspaper in December 2024: “Growth is the number one mission of this government but it’s got to be growth that’s felt by people who experienced nothing but decline in recent memory.

“The Democrats’ loss in the United States shows us that it’s not enough to point at a number on a graph in Whitehall and say you’ve made people’s lives better. We need to ensure it is shown in pay packets, and prices that aren’t spiralling out of control.”

In an article for the New Statesman in July 2025, Curtis, alongside fellow leading LGG figures Mark McVitie and Lola McEvoy, described the group’s founding principle as the belief “that decline is neither inevitable nor acceptable; Britain’s best days are ahead, but only if we choose purpose over complacency and disruption over caution.”

They called for a new “Beveridge model to rebuild Britain”, arguing that “Britain urgently requires a framework for national economic renewal as bold and transformative as Beveridge’s original vision was for welfare.”

Curtis announced his decision to stand back from the group in June 2026, saying the LGG would move “into a new phase”.

In a statement, Curtis said: “We won tremendous victories on issues like expanding the envelope on planning reform, pushing major fiscal devolution, driving the call for unleashing a new generation of nuclear power, unlocking greater investment in British defence and more…

“LGG is now moving into its next phase, with colleagues taking the work forward in fresh directions. I’m certain it will continue to play an important part in shaping Labour’s economic argument in the years ahead.

“Growth matters even more now than when we set the group up, and the case for it has only got stronger.”

Curtis is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for data centres (chair) and digital creators.

Curtis delivered his maiden speech on 11 September 2024 in a debate on building safety and resilience.

In it he said: “As the first MP for Milton Keynes who was born, and grew up, there, I would like to talk about the many men and women who built the new town – now city – that I call home. One in particular is Fred Roche, the man who led the Milton Keynes development corporation with a bold and uncompromising vision. The mantra that everybody on that team lived by was, ‘Make no little plans’.

“At times when families right across our country were living in substandard conditions – many would echo some of the comments we have heard today – and many were living without even an indoor toilet, Milton Keynes offered a beacon of hope.

“High-quality homes were built for tens of thousands of new residents and, at its peak, 10 families were moving in every single day.”

He added: “As a proud son of Milton Keynes, I can think of no mission more important for this new Government than to build the new towns and new homes that this country needs. It will require us to embrace the spirit of Fred Roche”.

Political views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Curtis 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: Alongside his role on the LGG, Curtis is also a member of the organising committee 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.”

Upon the group’s founding, Curtis told the Guardian: “For years [the cost of living] has polled as the top issue facing voters. We can have all of these arguments in the Labour party about whether we need to care about voters we’re losing to the Greens, whether we need to care about voters we’re losing to Reform or others.

“But actually right across that voter coalition when you sit down and speak to those voters, they will all say the biggest problem facing their lives is the price of food in the shops.”

Labour Movement for Europe: Curtis was endorsed by 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”.

Electoral reform

Fair elections APPG: Curtis is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for fair elections – a cross-party group of MPs and peers that campaigns for electoral reform. The group’s stated aims include replacing the first past the post (FPTP) voting system with a form of proportional representation, eliminating “dark money” and “undemocratic influence” from politics, and countering disinformation.

Electoral reform amendment: In May 2026, Curtis 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 vote (July 2025): Curtis 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

Curtis 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): Curtis 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, Curtis 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 1994, Curtis grew up in Milton Keynes. He graduated from the University of Exeter in 2015 with a degree in Politics.

Curtis’s pre-parliamentary career was primarily in political polling and research. He worked at YouGov for over five years, starting as an intern and becoming political research manager.

He was later head of political polling at Opinium Research (2021-2022) and associate director of the organisations (2022-2024).

Personal Life

Curtis describes himself as the first MP for Milton Keynes to be born and brought up in the constituency.

Trivia

Curtis has been described as one of “the most prominent MPs of the [2024] intake”.