Josh Dean is the Labour MP for Hertford and Stortford, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Dean won 20,808 votes, representing 38.5% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Julie Marson, received 16,060 votes (29.7%), while the Reform UK candidate, John Burmicz, secured 8,325 votes (15.4%). Dean was duly elected with a majority of 4,748.

The Hertford and Stortford constituency is located in Hertfordshire. The constituency was created in 1983 and had been represented by Conservative MPs until the 2024 general election.

Dean’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Hertford and Stortford was Julie Marson of the Conservative Party. Marson represented the seat from 2019 to 2024.

Political Career

In November 2025, Dean was one of 34 cross-party MPs and peers who signed a letter to Ofcom demanding an investigation into the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The letter, led by Joani Reid, chair of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on antisemitism, called on the regulator to determine whether the platform was in breach of its legal duties under the Online Safety Act following a reported surge in antisemitic content and calls for violence against Jews on X.

Dean is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for inclusion and nurture in education and youth employment.

Dean delivered his maiden speech on 29 July 2024 during a debate on the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill.

In it, he said: ““Our railways were once the pride of Britain, connecting people and places with new opportunities, but the current model of privatisation is failing passengers and staff across the country. I am heartened by my right honourable friend the secretary of state’s promise to ‘move fast and fix things’.

“We know that publicly owned, passenger-focused rail can deliver the efficient, high-quality and reliable service that our Hertford and Stortford residents need, and make our railways something to be proud of once again.”

He added: “I have not followed a traditional path through life, as my sometimes frustrated parents would agree. I left school at 17 and went straight into work, first in my town centre, then commuting into London, before working in recruitment in a local business park.

“I returned to education during lockdown, enrolling at the University of Westminster to study – perhaps unsurprisingly – politics, blissfully unaware that in a few years’ time, I would be desperately trying to navigate the corridors of this place.”

Before entering parliament, Dean was elected as a Labour councillor on Hertford Town Council from May 2023 to July 2024.

Dean also served as a youth representative on the Labour East Regional Executive Committee from November 2021 to January 2025.

In 2020, Dean founded the Stortford Against Rhodes campaign group, which successfully campaigned to rename the Rhodes Birthplace Trust in Bishop’s Stortford in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Political views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Dean 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.

Electoral reform

Fair elections APPG: Dean is listed as a member 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.

Electoral reform amendment: In May 2026, Dean was one of over 70 Labour MPs who signed an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, calling on the government to establish a “national commission on electoral reform”. Tabled by Alex Sobel as chair of the fair elections APPG, the amendment aimed to force a rethink of the first past the post voting system.

At the time, Sobel described FPTP as “one of the biggest examples of a broken status quo in UK politics.” He invited colleagues to join this “common sense call to take a fresh look at how parliament is elected in modern Britain.”

Welfare

Welfare ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Dean 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): Dean 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

Dean 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).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Dean 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.

Palestine

Palestinian recognition letter (July 2025): In July 2025, Dean was among the over 254 MPs to sign a cross-party letter calling for the government to immediately recognise the state of Palestine. The letter called on the prime minister and foreign secretary to recognise Palestine at the UN Conference then taking place in New York.

Before Politics

Dean grew up in the 2000s and attended Richard Hale School in Hertford, leaving at age 17.

He then worked jobs including a place in a local Starbucks branch before returning to education.

At the time of his election to parliament in July 2024, Dean was an undergraduate student studying politics and international relations at the University of Westminster and needed to complete his dissertation to graduate.

Personal Life

Dean was still living at home with his mother at the time of his election to parliament.

Trivia

Dean was one of the youngest MPs elected in 2024. He was 24-years-old at the time of his election.