Jessica Toale

MP for Bournemouth West

Labour

Jessica Toale is the Labour MP for Bournemouth West, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Toale won 14,365 votes, representing 36.4% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Conor Burns, received 11,141 votes (28.3%), while the Reform UK candidate Ben Aston secured 6,647 votes (16.9%). Toale was duly elected with a majority of 3,224.

The Bournemouth West constituency is located in Dorset, South West England. It was held by the Conservative Party from 1950 to 2024.

Political Career

Toale served as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office from July 2024 to July 2026. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs.

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

In May 2026, Toale was among the over 100 Labour MPs who signed a joint statement insisting it was “no time for a leadership contest.” The letter was an intervention in the political crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s premiership, after Labour suffered heavy losses in the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru. It was organised as a counterweight to a mounting rebellion that had seen high-profile figures, including some ministers, call for Starmer’s resignation.

The statement read: “Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs.

“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.”

Toale delivered her maiden speech on 17 October 2024 during a debate on the International Investment Summit.

In it, she said: “Bournemouth is not natural Labour territory, and I am really honoured to have won the trust of the people of Bournemouth in becoming not just its first Labour MP, but its first female MP. That is a monumental sign of the real changes we have seen in the constituency that are affecting it now and shaping its future.”

She added: “More than a decade of cuts to public services has meant that people now struggle to get an NHS dentist. Crime and antisocial behaviour are at the forefront of people’s minds as, for me, are parents who will not let their daughters go into the town centre at night.

“Knife crime has destroyed lives, the housing market too often locks out young people and young families, and do not even get me started on sewage.

“But I feel hopeful about the future.”

Before entering parliament, Toale was elected as a Labour councillor on Westminster City Council in May 2022. She stood down as a councillor in 2024.

Toale founded the Labour Foreign Policy Group in 2020.

Political Views

Factional identity and party tradition

Fair elections APPG: Toale has been listed as a supporter 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.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Toale 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

Toale voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at the third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Toale 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

Toale was born in May 1986.

Toale studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of York. She obtained a master’s degree in urbanisation and development from the London School of Economics and completed a postgraduate law degree at the University of law.

Toale’s career before entering frontline politics centred on foreign affairs and international development. She worked as a political advisor to Labour MP Ivan Lewis between 2012 and 2013, during his time as shadow secretary of state for international development and subsequently for Northern Ireland.

Toale served as a member of the Young Fabians executive committee from 2010 to 2015.