Julia Buckley is the Labour Party MP for Shrewsbury, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Buckley won 22,932 votes, representing 44.5% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Daniel Kawczynski, received 11,577 votes (22.5%). The Reform UK candidate, Victor Applegate, secured 7,524 votes (14.6%). Buckley was duly elected with a majority of 11,355.

The Shrewsbury constituency is located in Shropshire, West Midlands. The seat was re-established for the 2024 election, largely replacing the former Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency.

Buckley’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Shrewsbury was Daniel Kawczynski of the Conservative Party. Kawczynski held the seat from 2005 to 2024.

Political Career

Buckley is a member of the House of Commons environmental audit (since October 2024) – the commons select committee that acts as parliament’s primary cross-departmental watchdog on environmental issues. The EAC has a wide-ranging remit to examine how the policies and programmes of all government departments and public bodies impact environmental protection and sustainable development.

In January 2026, Buckley was one of over 60 Labour MPs to sign a letter to the prime minister calling for the introduction of an Australia-style ban on social media access for children under the age of 16. Organised by Plymouth Moor View MP Fred Thomas, the initiative brought together a cross-factional coalition of backbenchers – spanning the Socialist Campaign Group, Tribune Group and Blue Labour – to demand action.

The letter called on Keir Starmer to “show leadership” by introducing a minimum age for social media access “to protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms”.

It stated: “We are all strong supporters of technology, and of this Labour government’s ambition to use tech to improve lives. But successive governments have done far too little to protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms.”

In January 2025, Buckley closed her parliamentary office after it was attacked three times in one week.

At the time, she said: “It’s just really unfortunate, because I’ve really enjoyed having an office in the centre of town, where we were available and open so people could drop in and raise their concerns.”

Buckley is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for British buses, flooding and flooded communities, local markets and water.

Buckley delivered her maiden speech on 3 September 2024 in a debate on the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill.

In it, she said: “I am here today as the first female MP for Shrewsbury, and not before time. I am the daughter of a coal miner whose pit was closed in 1986, and who never worked again. I was 12 years old when this affected our family and our community, and it is when my interest in politics was first ignited.”

She added: “As an adult, I was fortunate to win a scholarship for my PhD in EU policy, and I worked in the European Parliament in Brussels for five years, specialising in regional investment funding to tackle inequality.

“While I was there, I made friends with the chirpy young woman in the next office, another northern lass who was passionate about politics – Jo Leadbeater, who later became Jo Cox. We ran the New York marathon together in 2001 with Suzy Sumner, as the Northern Lasses. We were so proud of Jo when she became an MP and how, with her usual style of Tiggerish enthusiasm and charm, she would persuade everyone towards her policy aims.

“Jo inspired me to go back into politics. After realising that life is too short and precious to wait for other people to solve problems, I decided to be more like Jo.”

Before entering parliament, Buckley served as a Labour councillor on Shropshire Council from 2021 to 2024. During this time, she served as leader of the Labour group.

Buckley previously contested the Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency in the 2019 general election and the Ludlow constituency at the 2017 election. She was also third on Labour’s regional list for the West Midlands in the 2019 European Parliament election. She was not elected.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Buckley 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

Labour Rural Research Group: Buckley has been listed as a member of the Labour Rural Research Group (LRRG) – a caucus made up of MPs representing Labour’s so-called “rural wall”. Launched in August 2025, the group’s primary aim is to ensure that policy is developed with a clear understanding of the distinct challenges and priorities of rural and semi-rural communities.

The LRRG, chaired by the Suffolk Coastal MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, conducts research and consultations to challenge what it sees as a “rural blind spot” in Whitehall.

Its first report, “Understanding Rural Britain”, surveyed voters on issues from healthcare and the economy to housing and the environment, seeking to build an evidence-based policy platform. The survey found nearly three quarters (74.4%) of respondents believe rural communities had been overlooked over the past 15 years. On the back of the report, Riddell-Carpenter stated that using the labelling rural voters as Nimbys (not in my back yard) was “toxic” and maintained “many people rightly despise the term”.

Living Standards Coalition: Buckley 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.”

Electoral reform

Fair elections APPG: Buckley 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, Buckley 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 vote (July 2025): Buckley 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

Buckley 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): Buckley 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, Buckley 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

Buckley grew up in a mining community in North Yorkshire. Her father was a coal miner.

Buckley studied at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Wolverhampton.

Buckley worked for five years as a policy advisor in the European Parliament. She subsequently worked for many years as an EU funding specialist in regional and local government, including at Wolverhampton City Council.

Personal Life

Buckley is married to John Buckley. She has two children.

Trivia

Buckley is the first woman to represent the town of Shrewsbury as its MP.