Connor Rand is the Labour MP for Altrincham and Sale West, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Rand won 20,798 votes, representing 40.4% of the vote. The Conservative Party candidate, Oliver Carroll, received 16,624 votes (32.3%), while the Reform UK candidate, Paul Swansborough, secured 4,961 votes (9.6%). Rand was duly elected with a majority of 4,174.  

The Altrincham and Sale West constituency is located in Greater Manchester in North West England. The constituency was represented by Sir Graham Brady of the Conservative Party from its creation in 1997 to 2024.

Political Career

Rand currently serves as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Ministry of Justice. 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. Rand was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Rand served as a PPS in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero from September 2025 to July 2026.

Rand has sat as a member of the House of Commons home affairs committee (2024-2025).

Rand delivered his maiden speech on 12 September 2024.

In it, he said: “All too often, organisations such [food banks] are having to go above and beyond in the most challenging of circumstances to stop people falling through the cracks, because as a country we have failed to provide people with the security in work that they need; we have failed to provide the economic stability and certainty that businesses need in order to invest; and we have failed to address the long-term challenges our country faces.

“That is why Labour was elected: to fix what has become broken, and to offer hope and renewal.”

He added: “Having worked on a national campaign against the violence and abuse that shopworkers receive, I know how important it is that we clamp down on crime against public-facing workers, and I know that this government will act.

“Having changed our party so that we could be given the extraordinary opportunity we have to change our country, that is the sort of tangible change to the lives of people in Altrincham and Sale West that we must achieve.”

Before entering parliament, Rand worked as campaigns and membership officer for Labour Students and as a regional organizer for the Labour Party.

Political views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Rand 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

Usdaw: Rand is listed as vice-chair of the Usdaw Union Parliamentary Group – a group of MPs who are members of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) and work generally to represent the union’s interests within parliament.

Trade Union Group: Rand is a member of the Trade Union Group of Labour MPs executive. This long-standing group, founded in 1926, serves as a link between the Labour party and the trade union movement, aiming to ensure that the voices of working people and their unions are represented in parliament.

Get Britain Working Group: Rand has been listed as a member of the Get Britain Working Group of Labour MPs – a caucus supportive of the Starmer leadership’s position on welfare. The group argues for a “new social contract built on employment and opportunity”, focusing on the rising number of people out of the workforce due to long-term sickness.

In an open letter, issued upon the group’s founding in March 2025, the group expressed its support for the government’s welfare measures set out in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. The bill was subject to a significant revolt of over 120 Labour MPs – which forced ministers into a series of concessions shortly before its first vote in the House of Commons.

Ahead of the bill’s fraught second reading debate, the MPs wrote: “Our Labour values are built on a simple but powerful idea: that every individual, regardless of background or circumstance, should have the support they need to make the most of their lives.”

Labour Growth Group: Rand 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.”

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Rand 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

Rand 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).

Foreign policy and security

IPAC: Rand is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) – an international, cross-party network of legislators from democratic countries focused on relations with the People’s Republic of China. The alliance, established on 4 June 2020, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, was formed to unite “lawmakers worldwide, promoting democracy and addressing threats to the rules-based and human rights systems posed by the rise of China.”

Before Politics

Connor Dean Rand attended Wisbech Grammar School.

He studied history at the University of East Anglia, graduating in 2014.

Rand’s career centred on research and campaign roles before entering parliament. He was a researcher and then senior researcher at Usdaw Union from 2018 to 2024.

Personal Life

Rand lives in Timperley with his partner Catherine, who is a local primary school teacher. He has two children.

Rand spent some weeks on paternity leave in 2025.

Trivia

Rand is the first Labour MP ever to represent the Altrincham and Sale West constituency or its predecessors – breaking over a century of Conservative representation in the area.

Rand is a supporter of Norwich City FC.