Feryal Clark is the Labour MP for Enfield North, and was first elected at the 2019 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Clark won 21,368 votes, representing 49.1% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Chris Dey, received 8,632 votes (19.8%), while the Reform UK candidate, Stephen Bird, secured 5,146 votes (11.8%). Clark was duly elected with a majority of 12,736 votes.

The Enfield North constituency is located in the London Borough of Enfield in North London and borders the M25 motorway. Historically considered a bellwether, the seat was held by the Conservative Party between 1979 and 1997, and again between 2010 and 2015. Labour has held the seat since the 2015 general election.

The immediate predecessor MP was Joan Ryan, first elected for Labour in 1997, who later left the party to form The Independent Group (later Change UK) in February 2019.

Political Career

Clark currently serves as a trade envoy to Germany (since January 2026). Appointed by the trade secretary, envoys are tasked with boosting British exports and attracting foreign investment. An envoy’s duties typically involve leading trade delegations, lobbying host governments on market access issues, and building relationships with overseas businesses.

Clark was appointed as a member of the United Kingdom delegation to the Nato parliamentary assembly (Nato PA) by the prime minister in November 2024. The delegation serves as a consultative link between the UK parliament and Nato. The assembly brings together legislators from all 32 member states to debate and provide oversight on security and defence policy. The party distribution of the delegation is intended to reflect the composition of the House of Commons.

Clark served as parliamentary under-secretary of state for AI and digital government from July 2024 to September 2025.

Prior to the 2024 general election, which saw Labour returned to power after 14 years in opposition, Clark held several shadow ministerial roles. She was shadow minister for crime reduction from November 2023 to July 2024, shadow minister for health from September 2023 to November 2023, and shadow minister for primary care and patient safety from December 2021 until September 2023. She also served as an opposition whip from May 2021 to December 2021.

In January 2022, Clark called on the government to formally recognise the Armenian genocide.

Speaking during a commons debate marking Holocaust Memorial Day, Clark said: “I was born in south-east Turkey and grew up hearing stories about the horrors faced by the Armenian people in that region. Almost 100 years ago, a whole culture and a whole people were systematically destroyed and had their identity erased in an act of appalling violence.

“Families were torn apart, with children never seeing their parents again. Some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children were killed. Vibrant, centuries-old communities were simply wiped off the face of the map.”

She added: “What happened to Armenian people 100 years ago was a genocide, and it is about time that our government recognized that.”

Clark was a member of the environmental audit committee from March 2020 to February 2021.

Clark delivered her maiden speech on 16 January 2020 during a debate on health and social care. She said: “As a child refugee who arrived in Britain with her family 30 years ago, I could never have dreamed that I would have the privilege and responsibility to serve my adopted country as a member of parliament.”

She added: “I am extremely proud of the diverse population of Enfield North. Our diversity is our strength… Some 6.8% of my constituents hail from other parts of the EU, and they can be assured that I will stand up for them during every step of the Brexit process, fighting for their rights to be protected and for promises made to them to be kept.”

She served as a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Hackney for 14 years, representing Brownswood ward (2006-2014) and later Hoxton East & Shoreditch ward (2014-2019). During this time, she served as a member of the cabinet (for “nearly a decade”) and was deputy leader of the council for two years.

On her official website, reflecting on her time as a councillor, Clark says she “led the development of play streets and school streets initiatives, creating places for young children to play on their doorsteps in spaces usually dominated by cars.”

Clark stood for the London Assembly in the 2016 elections.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Clark 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. he was ultimately defeated by Lucy Powell.

Labour leadership 2020: Clark was one of 31 Labour MPs who nominated Lisa Nandy 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.

Factional identity and party tradition

SERA: Clark 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”.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Clark 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

Clark 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).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Clark 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 Feryal Demirci in Malatya, Turkey, on 6 January 1979, Clark’s parents are Kurdish Alevi. She is described as the first Labour MP of Kurdish heritage.

Clark studied biomedical science and subsequently bioinformatics at the University of Exeter.

She later worked in NHS Pathology services for six years prior to focusing on her political career.

Personal Life

Clark lives in Enfield North with her husband and two young children.

Trivia

Clark is five feet tall.

In her 2020 maiden speech, she joked that she is “a whole half inch taller” than fellow Labour MP Tulip Siddiq.

She was the first MP of Turkish Kurdish heritage to be elected to parliament.

She was also the first MP to follow the Alevi religion. “Although there are between 300,000 and half a million believers in the UK, they are underrepresented in public office”, Clark has commented.