Kirith Entwistle is the Labour MP for Bolton East, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Entwistle received 16,166 votes, representing 37.3% of the vote share. The Conservative candidate, Adele Warren, received 9,513 votes (21.9%) and the Reform UK, Trevor Jones, candidate received 9,428 votes (21.7%). Entwistle was duly elected with a majority of 6,653.

The Bolton North East constituency is located in Greater Manchester.

Entwistle’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Bolton East was Mark Logan of the Conservative Party. Logan, who stood down at the 2024 election, represented the seat from 2019 to 2024.

Political Career

Entwistle currently serves as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder. Although they cannot speak for the government in debates, a PPS is bound by collective responsibility and becomes part of the so-called “payroll vote”, expected to support the official line in all divisions. Entwistle was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Entwistle previously served as a parliamentary private secretary in the Treasury from September 2025 to July 2026.

Entwistle is a member of the House of Commons modernisation committee (since September 2024). The modernisation committee is a cross-party committee of MPs that considers reforms to House of Commons procedures, standards, and working practices.

In May 2026, Entwistle 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.”

In the wake of the 2024 general election, which saw Labour returned to power after 14 years in opposition, Entwistle was appointed by 10 Downing Street as a “mission champion” for the North West – a role intended to cut across departmental boundaries and support Labour’s programme for “national renewal”. These “missions”, first set out in 2023 and subsequently given less prominence, included boosting economic growth, reducing NHS waiting times, tackling crime, establishing a publicly owned clean energy company and expanding educational opportunity.

Entwistle sat as a member of the women and equalities committee from October 2024 to October 2025.

Entwistle delivered her maiden speech on 17 July 2024 in a debate on the king’s speech.

In it, she said: “As a new MP, I want to reach across the political divide and find the things that unite us all; indeed, this king’s speech offers hope that we can come together to tackle the issues of today for the good of this country.”

She added: “I am the new member of parliament for Bolton North East, the first woman to represent this great constituency, and the first Ahluwalia in parliament…

“I had also hoped to be the first Entwistle. However, Major Sir Cyril Fullard Entwistle – I thought Kirith Kaur Ahluwalia Entwistle was long – beat me to it in 1918. Indeed, he later returned to represent the great town of Bolton in 1931.

“Sir Cyril and I share some similarities. He was born in Bombay in 1887 to a cotton manufacturer and came to Bolton where he was educated at Bolton grammar school in my constituency. How fitting is it then that, all these years later, a second-generation Indian immigrant would move to Bolton, settle down and then represent our great town in Westminster?”

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Entwistle 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

Usdaw: Entwistle is a member of the Usdaw Union Parliamentary Group – a group of MPs who are members of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) and work generally to represent the union’s interests within parliament.

Labour Growth Group: Entwistle has been listed as a member of the Labour Growth Group (LGG) – a vocal faction of backbenchers committed to ensuring economic growth remains the central mission of the government. The group, largely composed of MPs from the 2024 intake, positions itself as the voice of “the builders, not the blockers” and provides organised support for ministers taking on politically difficult decisions in the name of economic expansion.

In an open letter addressed to Keir Starmer, issued upon the group’s founding in July 2024, LGG MPs said it was imperative that “the government grasps the nettle and goes for growth”.

They added: “This absolutely has to start with the sweeping planning reforms to get Britain building again. Under the Tories, planning permissions for new homes hit record lows and housebuilding cratered. Indeed, not once in their 14 years in power did the Conservatives meet their housing targets.

“Energy and transport projects were promised but not built. That’s why we are writing to you to make clear that it’s in the national interest to start delivering on our manifesto promise, including 1.5 million more homes across this parliament at the earliest opportunity.

“A failure to act will not be forgiven by the public. Britain has a housing crisis and a huge infrastructure deficit – without strong and immediate action, this will only worsen.”

Labour Movement for Europe: Entwistle was endorsed by the Labour Movement for Europe (LME) in the 2024 general election. Founded in 1981, LME is a pro-European socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. It campaigns for a close relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The organisation refers to itself as the “home of the pro-Europeans in the Labour and trade union movement”.

Welfare

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

Entwistle voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at second reading (November 2024). On the third reading of the bill in June 2025, Entwistle did not record a vote.

In a statement setting out her position, issued shortly before the bill’s second reading, Entwistle said: “People are already ending their lives in harrowing ways out of desperation, and out of fear their loved ones might be punished for helping them.

“Currently, those who can afford to do so, do go abroad and enlist options available to them to help them end their lives. Why should this be a right only available to those with the financial means to do so?

“In addition, the argument that this will put us on a ‘slippery slope’ and open up the door to relaxing safeguarding or the terms of this bill, doesn’t apply in this country because any changes will need to go through parliament and debated in the appropriate way.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Entwistle 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, Entwistle 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

Entwistle was born in Southall, London, in the early 1990s. She has a Kenyan Indian background.

Entwistle graduated with a degree in American studies from the University of Portsmouth in 2012.

She worked as a policy, communications and public affairs manager for the charity Wavelength. She started a “phone a neighbour” campaign in Harwood to help vulnerable and shielding individuals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She campaigned for the Leveson Inquiry in my work for Hacked Off.

Personal Life

Entwistle lives in her Bolton East constituency.

Trivia

Entwistle was previously a member of the Young Fabians executive committee.

She is the first Sikh to represent her constituency.