David Williams is the Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Williams won 14,579 votes, representing 40.3% of the vote. The Conservative incumbent, Jonathan Gullis, received 9,497 votes (26.3%), while the Reform UK candidate, Karl Beresford, secured 8,824 votes (24.4%). Williams was duly elected with a majority of 5,082.

The Stoke-on-Trent North constituency is located in Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region. The seat was held by Jonathan Gullis of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2024, and before that by Labour from 1950 to 2019.

Political Career

Williams is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for ceramics (vice chair), digital identity, youth affairs, and apprenticeships.

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

Williams delivered his maiden speech on 6 November 2024 during a debate on the budget.

In it, he said: “My dad once told me, ‘People like us don’t become MPs.’ While, thankfully, he was wrong, because I am here today, many people still believe that where we are born will forever dictate our life’s direction.

“That is why I am a member of the Labour Party, because we believe that everybody, no matter where they are from, should have equal access to opportunities.”

He added: “I am incredibly proud to be a part of a Labour government who have delivered their commitment to working people through their first budget in 14 years.”

Before entering parliament, Williams was elected as a Labour councillor on Stoke-on-Trent City Council in May 2019. He remained a councillor upon his election to parliament in 2024.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Williams was one of 117 Labour MPs who nominated Lucy Powell 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.

Powell, the former leader of the House of Commons, was seen as a candidate representing the party’s “soft left”; she was supported by leading soft left figures including Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham. She secured 117 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), above the 80 required, and went on to win the election – defeating Bridget Phillipson with 54.3% of the vote.

Factional identity and party tradition

Red Wall Caucus: Williams is a member of the Labour Red Wall Caucus, a parliamentary pressure group of Labour MPs representing constituencies in the Midlands and Northern England. Formed in November 2024 and led by Bassetlaw MP Jo White, the caucus serves as a voice for the so-called “red wall” seats that returned to Labour en masse at the 2024 general election.

In May 2025, following a series of disappointing local election results for the Labour Party, the caucus issued a statement calling for a shift in government strategy. The group argued that Keir Starmer’s “plan for change” messaging had “fallen on deaf ears”, inviting ministers to “visit our areas, listen and rebuild the social contract between government and the people.”

The statement added: “The demands raised by new MPs from post-industrial towns where infrastructure is poor with years of underinvestment must be taken off the too-difficult-to-do list.

“Breakaway from Treasury orthodoxy otherwise we will never get the investment we desperately need. The government needs to it improve messaging by telling our story and articulating our values in the language that resonates and is heard.”

In a subsequent letter to Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, on 27 August 2025, the MPs said they were elected “with commitments to destroy the criminal smuggling gang networks, ensure that our border is secure… and to quickly remove those who have no entitlement to be here.”

They went on to critique Farage’s deportations plan.

The MPs added: “We believe that migrants who pose a threat to public safety should be tagged, and that we should expand right-to-work checks to crack down on illegal working. We believe sex offenders should never get asylum in the UK. We believe that the criminal people smuggling gangs should be treated like terrorists.”

Living Standards Coalition: Williams 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): Williams 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): Williams 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

Williams 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).

Before Politics

Williams studied at the University of Keele.

Personal Life

Williams lives in his Stoke-on-Trent North constituency.

In January 2026, Williams thanked NHS staff after he was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital. He had to be treated with oxygen after suffering what he described as “a really bad, severe flu”.

Trivia

Williams serves simultaneously as a councillor and an MP.