Darren Jones is the Labour MP for Bristol North West, having first been elected to parliament at the 2017 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Jones won 24,058 votes, representing 49.6% of the vote. The Green Party candidate, Mary Page, received 8,389 votes (17.3%), while the Conservative candidate, Laura Saunders, secured 6,773 votes (14.0%). Jones was duly elected with a majority of 15,669 votes, the largest recorded in the constituency’s history. 

The Bristol North West constituency covers western and northern parts of the city, including areas such as Avonmouth, Lawrence Weston, Henbury, Horfield, Southmead, and Westbury-on-Trym. Historically a marginal seat, Labour has held it since 2017.  

Political Career

Jones served as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and chief secretary to the prime minister from September 2025 to July 2026. As chief secretary to the prime minister, a new post, Jones was frequently the focus of government communication campaigns.

Jones served as chief secretary to the Treasury from July 2024 to September 2025.

Jones left government as part of the July 2026 cabinet reshuffle conducted by Andy Burnham upon his appointment as prime minister.

Upon leaving government, Jones appeared to criticise the nascent Burnham government for an “unfunded” policy measure. The intervention came after Burnham announced that VAT would be removed from domestic electricity bills from 1 October 2026, taking an estimated £45 off the annual Ofgem price cap. The government said the policy would be “funded from the cancelled digital ID scheme this year”.

Jones responded: “Good news that VAT will be cut on electricity bills. It’s a simple way for families to save a few quid, and to mechanically help to keep inflation that little bit lower.

“But the DigitalID program was unfunded. The government will have to set out how it will pay for its new policies at the budget.”

Prior to the 2024 general election, Jones served as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury from September 2023. Before joining the shadow cabinet, he chaired the House of Commons business and trade select committee (formerly business, energy and industrial strategy) from May 2020 to September 2023.

Jones’ past committee service includes the science, innovation and technology committee (2017-2019 and 2020-2021), the European scrutiny committee (2017-2019), the liaison committee (2020-2023) and the national security strategy joint committee (2020-2024)

He was also appointed to the UK-EU parliamentary partnership assembly in 2022.

Jones served briefly as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the shadow justice secretary, David Lammy, and shadow attorney general, Lord Falconer, in 2020.

He delivered his maiden speech on 26 June 2017 during a debate on Brexit and foreign affairs. In it, Jones commented: “This Brexit parliament will define the future of our country. Let us not self-harm and cause pain, but let us instead unite and act with sense, as well as with patriotism in our hearts, for a national renewal after the dark years of austerity, for the birth of a new British chapter that works for the many, not just the few, and for a new dawn for a new Britain.

“It is for us now to seize that opportunity and to avoid the risks of failure, but we can do it only by working together in this Brexit parliament – leavers and remainers – in the national interest.”

He added: “Being elected as the member of parliament for my home constituency of Bristol North West is deeply humbling. It is humbling for me personally, as a working-class kid from a council estate in Lawrence Weston in my constituency.

“To be able to speak here on behalf of my friends, my family, my community and, indeed, my country is a great honour.”

Jones previously stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for Torridge and West Devon in the 2010 general election, finishing fourth to Conservative incumbent Geoffrey Cox on 2,917 votes (5.3%).

Jones stood in Bristol North West in the 2015 general election, finishing second to Conservative incumbent Charlotte Leslie on 17,823 votes (34.4%).

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour leadership 2020: Jones was one of 21 Labour MPs who nominated Jess Phillips for the party’s leadership in early 2020. The election was triggered by the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn following the party’s defeat in the 2019 general election, which resulted in Labour’s fewest seats in the House of Commons since 1935.

Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, had been a prominent critic of Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. She withdrew from the contest on 21 January 2020, suggesting that she could not “unite all parts of our movement”.

Factional identity and party tradition

Jones is said to sit on the right of the Labour Party.

Reflecting on Labour’s victory in the 2024 general election, he said: “The adults are back in the room.”

Jones stated: “The key thing that you’ll see from this Labour government is that we’re going to return both to the service of the British people, but also to the norms. The adults are back in the room.”

Jones has also described himself as a “techno-optimist”.

In a House of Commons debate on UK artificial intelligence (AI) policy (June 2023), he said: “Let us seize this opportunity of modernisation and reform, remembering this is about people and our country.

“We can put the technology revolution at the heart of our political agenda, our vision for a modern, reformed Britain. A strong, successful and sustainable economy. A technology revolution that works in the interests of the British people. A Britain that is upgraded so that it works once again.”

In March 2019, Tom Watson, the then deputy leader of the Labour Party, appointed Jones as convenor of the Future Britain Group. The faction was formed after a series of Labour MPs left the party in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership to form the Independent Group (later Change UK).

At the time, Watson called for the restoration of “pluralism and tolerance”, arguing that Labour had only ever been elected to government “when the pluralism of our different traditions has been respected.”

Notable supporters of the group included former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, former deputy leader John Prescott, Peter Mandelson, Yvette Cooper, Lord David Blunkett, Pat McFadden, and Hilary Benn.

Mandelson described the group as a “coming together of the TB-GBs” – a reference to the long-standing divisions between those loyal to Tony Blair (TB) and those loyal to Gordon Brown (GB) during the New Labour years.

In total, the Future Britain Group is said to have secured the support of over 150 MPs and peers. Jones, considered a rising star on the Labour right, insisted that the grouping was “not a faction”, but “the coming together of previous factions into the mainstream of the Labour Party”.

He added: “If I was going to break away, I would have broken away with The Independent Group. I am staying in the Labour Party. There is a place in the Labour Party for me too.

“I am not a Marxist, I am a social democrat. And I want to contribute on that basis, and this group seems like a good way to do that.”

SERA: Jones 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: Jones supported Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and therefore agreed with a majority of constituents, 61.1% of whom also voted to Remain.

People’s vote support (2019): Jones 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, Jones 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.”

Brexit trade deal: In December 2020, Jones was among the 37 Labour MPs to rebel against the leadership’s position on the EU (Future Relationship) Bill – which enabled the government to implement and ratify its post-Brexit trade deal with the EU. Keir Starmer, the newly elected Labour leader, argued that while the trade deal negotiated by Boris Johnson’s government was “thin” and flawed, the only alternative at that late stage was a “no-deal” exit. To enforce the leadership’s position, a three-line whip was imposed. Jones abstained over the bill. One Labour MP, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, voted against the bill.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Jones 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

Jones 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 a statement, issued before the bill’s second reading, Jones said he planned to “abstain or vote against”.

He stated: “This is because private members’ bills, which are introduced by backbench MPs, don’t get anywhere near the same level of scrutiny and debate as the bills put forward by the government – and legalising assisted dying is far from a straightforward issue.”

Foreign policy and security

Sanctioned (Russia): In April 2022, Jones was among the group of MPs placed on a sanctions list by the Russian government. The measure barred them from entering Russia and was presented by Moscow as a retaliatory response to the UK’s stance on the invasion of Ukraine.

Before Politics

Born Darren Paul Jones in Bristol on 13 November 1986, he grew up in the Lawrence Weston area of the city. He attended Portway Community School in Shirehampton.  

He studied Human Bioscience (BSc) at the University of Plymouth, where he served as President of the Students’ Union.

He later completed the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) at the University of the West of England and the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at the University of Law in Bristol.  

He qualified as a solicitor and worked at Womble Bond Dickinson LLP (formerly Bond Dickinson/Bond Pearce) before becoming an in-house counsel at BT, specialising in data privacy, cybersecurity, telecommunications, and consumer law.

Personal Life

Jones is married to Lucy Symons-Jones, a net zero consultant and technology entrepreneur. They have three daughters.

Trivia

Jones was the first MP named Darren ever elected to the House of Commons. He has proved a trailblazer in this regard, with other MPs named Darren elected since including Darren Henry.

Jones became vegan in 2014, citing reasons related to carbon emissions and agriculture.

He commented in 2018: “I was persuaded to become a vegan in the run-up to the 2015 general election by my fellow Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, who is a longstanding vegan. I was preparing for a hustings with an environment group and she sent me briefing notes on farming sustainability issues.”