Laurence Turner is the Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Turner won 14,929 votes, representing 39.6% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Gary Sambrook, received 9,540 votes (25.3%), while the Reform UK candidate Stephen Peters secured 7,895 votes (21.0%). Turner was duly elected with a majority of 5,389.

The Birmingham Northfield constituency is located in the West Midlands. The seat was held by the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2024, and before that by the Labour Party from 1992 to 2019.

Political Career

Turner currently serves as an assistant government whip. He was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Turner served as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Department for Education from June to July 2026.

Turner is chair of the GMB parliamentary group.

Turner has sat as a member of the House of Commons transport select committee (2024-2026).

Turner has been listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for archives and history, Belarus (co-chair), local transport and sustainable plastics (chair).

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

In it, he said: “If I could achieve one thing in the time I have in this place, it would be to secure improvements to special educational needs and disabilities provision. It is a cause that is close to my heart: I was one of those children.

“I know what it means to have to fight to avoid being defined by other people’s low expectations. I know the stigma that is the mark of attitudes that are still common and from words that I will not repeat in this place. I wish that I could say otherwise, but it never leaves you.

“It is not enough to fight for people within a failing system; we have to change it.”

He added: “The new government’s plans to establish a fair pay agreement for adult social care, and to reinstate the school support staff negotiating body, will also make a real, material and long overdue difference to thousands of low-paid workers in the Northfield constituency, most of them women, who I was proud to help represent as an officer of the GMB union, and whose skills and professionalism have been undervalued for too long.”

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Turner 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.

Factional identity and party tradition

Labour Growth Group: Turner 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.”

Trade Union Group: Turner is a member of the Trade Union Group of Labour MPs executive. This long-standing group, founded in 1926, serves as a link between the Labour party and the trade union movement, aiming to ensure that the voices of working people and their unions are represented in parliament.

SERA: Turner 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 ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Turner 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): Turner 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

Turner 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): Turner 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

Turner was born in Nottingham in May 1988. Both his parents were teachers.

Turner studied modern history at the University of Oxford, graduating in 2009. He obtained a master’s degree in modern history from the same institution in 2011. He completed further postgraduate study at Birkbeck, University of London.

Turner’s career before entering parliament centred on advisory and campaign roles.

He was a parliamentary assistant, supporting a shadow minister, from 2012 to 2015. He served as a political adviser to the shadow secretary of state for transport from 2015 to 2016.

Turner worked at the GMB trade union from 2016 to 2024, becoming head of research and policy in 2020.

Turner was also director of the Labour Research Department from 2018 to 2024.

Personal Life

Turner has dyspraxia.

Trivia

Turner signed the June 2025 reasoned amendment to the government’s flagship welfare bill.