Lizzi Collinge is the Labour Party MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Collinge won 19,603 votes, representing 40.8% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, David Morris, received 13,788 votes (28.7%). The Reform UK candidate received 7,810 votes (16.3%). Collinge was duly elected with a majority of 5,815.

The Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency is located in Lancashire, North West England. It is considered a bellwether seat – held by Labour from 1997 to 2010, and by the Conservatives from 2010 until Labour regained it in 2024.

Collinge’s predecessor as the MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale was David Morris of the Conservative Party. Morris held the seat from 2010 to 2024.

Political Career

Collinge is a member of the House of Commons energy security and net zero committee (since November 2025). The committee scrutinises the work of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

In May 2026, Collinge publicly called for Keir Starmer, the prime minister, to step down/set out a timetable for his departure. The move followed the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru.

In a statement at the time, Collinge said that Starmer had “lost the confidence of the country”.

She added: “Governing a country requires compromise and hard choices, and we’re the only party who faces up to that.

“We also face some opposition that simply operates outside the norms of decency and honesty. I have seen this locally and nationally. We need to fight to steer our country away from the terrible future they want, a future riven with division and with policies based on prejudice and ideology, not facts, evidence or positive values.”

Collinge serves as a member of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for humanists (chair).

Collinge delivered her maiden speech on 22 July 2024 during a debate on the economy, welfare and public services.

In it, she said: “I am a humanist. Humanists are people who shape our lives in the here and now, because we believe it is the only life we have, and what is politics if not shaping lives in the here and now? Humanists try to treat everyone we come across with warmth, understanding and respect.

“We believe that we humans have everything we need: logic, reason, evidence, and empathy to make good, ethical decisions. It is these values that I hope to bring to my role in decision making in this place, so I welcome our government’s focus on service, integrity and honesty.”

She added: “[My] Grandma, remembering her parents’ hard upbringing – they experienced sometimes abject poverty – always voted Labour, much to the annoyance of my working-class Tory grandad.

“When I was first elected to the county council, grandad told me, ‘Ey Liz, I’m reyt proud of you. It’s a pity you’re on the wrong side!’ My grandad might not have been a Labour supporter, but he did believe in service”.

Collinge served as a Labour councillor on Lancashire County Council from 2016 until 2025.

Collinge stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency at the 2019 general election.

Political views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Collinge 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

Living Standards Coalition: Collinge 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.”

Compass: Collinge was endorsed by local groups of the cross-party organisation Compass during the 2024 general election. Compass is a thinktank and campaign group. As part of its “Win as One” campaign in the 2024 election, local Compass groups backed a slate of progressive candidates who had pledged their support for electoral reform. The central aim of the initiative was to elect a “caucus” of MPs who would champion the cause of replacing the first past the post (FPTP) electoral system.

Electoral reform

Fair elections APPG: Collinge 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, Collinge 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): Collinge 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.

In a statement at the time, Collinge said: “I have signed this reasoned amendment. The majority of reforms proposed by the Government are both necessary and welcome but I can’t support changes to PIP eligibility.

“We need to reduce numbers by actually preventing ill health.

“Our other actions in government are all pushing the right way in getting the economy sorted and making people healthier, so it’s with a heavy heart that I have taken this step.”

Welfare vote (July 2025): Collinge went on to vote against the 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.

In the wake of the vote, Collinge said: “I could not in good conscience vote for these reforms as they currently stand, even with last-minute assurances from ministers on key concessions. As a backbench Labour MP, I have always made it clear that my constituents come first, every time…

“My professional background in health and social care also informed my decision – I am concerned that the costs taken out of the benefits bill will merely end up being spent elsewhere.

“It was an especially tough decision as I wholeheartedly support the government’s mission to support people back into work and reform our welfare system.”

Assisted dying

Collinge voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both the second reading (November 2024) and the third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Collinge 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

Elizabeth Collinge was born in Lancashire and moved to rural Cumbria as a young child. She briefly lived in New Zealand before moving back to Lancashire in 2005.

Collinge worked in catering before going to university as a mature student.

She has been a project manager and engagement facilitator, having worked in public health and for a small business.

Personal Life

Collinge lives in Heysham with her husband and two children.

Trivia

Collinge grows her own fruit and vegetables.