Mark Sewards is the Labour MP for Leeds South West and Morley, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Sewards won 17,681 votes, representing 44.0% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Andrea Jenkyns, received 9,258 votes (23.0%), while the Reform UK candidate, James Kendall, secured 8,187 votes (20.4%). Sewards was duly elected with a majority of 8,423.

The Leeds South West and Morley constituency, newly created ahead of the 2024 general election, is located in West Yorkshire. The seat was formed primarily from parts of the former Morley and Outwood constituency (previously held by Conservative Andrea Jenkyns) and the Leeds West constituency (held by Labour’s Rachel Reeves).

Political Career

Sewards is a member of the House of Commons education select committee (since October 2024). The education committee scrutinises the work of the Department for Education (DfE) and its associated public bodies.

In May 2026, Sewards 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 February 2026, Sewards expressed reservations about the government’s proposed overhaul of indefinite leave to remain (ILR) guidelines in a Westminster Hall debate. The session, which was triggered by two public petitions signed by over 330,000 people, focused on Home Office proposals to replace the established five-year pathway to permanent residency (also known as indefinite leave to remain or settlement) with a 10-year baseline under an “earned settlement” model.

In the debate, Sewards suggested the rules could break up families and trap international students.

He stated: “Controlling our borders is a basic function of the state. The government inherited open borders and are now undertaking the serious work required to fix them, so I welcome the minister’s efforts. However, I think there are some tweaks we could make…

“[Families I have spoken with] came to this country under one set of rules, which allowed dependants to move to the UK with them, and now they are very concerned at the prospect of being unable to qualify together and being broken up entirely.”

In August 2025, Sewards became the first MP to create an AI version of himself to interact with constituents, after working alongside a startup AI firm. Sewards said the chatbot would “help strengthen the connection between an MP’s office and the constituents we serve.”

He stated: “This prototype AI model offers my constituents an additional way to engage with their MP on local casework and policy issues. It can’t ever replace any of the other work I do and it simply gives people another option to contact me, anytime of day.”

However, Sewards bid farewell to “AI Mark” in December 2025, conceding the chatbot ultimately “didn’t save any time”.

In an October 2025 article for the House magazine, Sewards wrote: “The reception on social media drove most of our traffic. Some people spent hours trying to break him. One person from Ukraine had long conversations with him, trying to get him to declare support for one repressive regime or another. But AI Mark held firm in his love for democracy.”

In June 2025, Sewards was one of 22 newly elected Labour MPs who co-signed a letter to the leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) calling for improved paternity leave for parliamentary staff. The letter, organised in collaboration with the campaign group The Dad Shift, argued that the current provision of two weeks’ paid leave was “unfair” and left parliament trailing behind leading private and public sector employers.

The letter said current rules meant MPs were “unable to support our staff appropriately at some of the most important times of their lives”.

They added: “Dads in our offices get just two weeks off, a situation that is unfair and puts parliament many steps behind top employers across the country.”

In response, a government spokesperson told PoliticsHome: “We are committed to making sure parents receive the best possible support to balance their work and home lives as part of our Plan to Make Work Pay.”

In June 2025, Sewards was one of 16 Labour MPs to sign a letter to the foreign secretary, David Lammy, accusing the government of failing to protect the rights of LGBT+ citizens in the British Overseas Territories. The group argued that the absence of legal protections in jurisdictions such as the Turks and Caicos, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and Montserrat constituted a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

According to a PoliticsHome report, the letter described the government’s “inaction on these injustices is not only a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights but, more importantly, a betrayal of the values Britain has long championed on the world stage.”

It added: “By failing to prevent differential treatment of LGBT+ persons in these jurisdictions, which naturally includes British citizens, the UK has allowed a two-tier system of British LGBT+ rights to emerge, in which the promise of equality and dignity extends only to some, not all, of its citizens and territories.”

Sewards was appointed as the parliamentary chair of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) in November 2025, succeeding Jon Pearce. LFI is one of the most established and prominent advocacy groups within Labour, campaigning for a strong bilateral relationship between the UK and Israel and working to bolster ties with its sister party, Israeli Labor. The organisation advocates for a two-state solution, with a secure Israel alongside a “viable, democratic and independent” Palestinian state.

Responding to his appointment, Sewards commented: “Now more than ever, the shared ambitions of LFI and our Labour government must be clear: to work towards two states for two peoples; promote peacebuilding between Israelis and Palestinians; strengthen regional security and prosperity; enhance the relationship between Britain, Israel and Palestine; support an International Fund for peacebuilding and reconciliation; and take on anti-Zionist antisemitism wherever we find it…

“I am determined to help ensure that, just as Keir Starmer defeated antisemitism in the Labour party, our Labour government will lead the fight against hatred of Jews in the country.”

Sewards is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for consumer protection, Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire (chair) and parents (chair).

Sewards delivered his maiden speech on 5 September 2024 during a debate on the Great British Energy Bill.

In it, he said: “Part of Morley’s history is that it was once home to the penultimate Liberal prime minister, Herbert Asquith…

“I know that some of the historians among us will never forgive Herbert Asquith… for the shell crisis of 1915, which saw the British Army left without the munitions it needed during world war one.

“This ultimately brought down his premiership, but given that the crisis was abated when the state stepped in to provide a solution, it stands as a reminder that, as powerful as the free market can be, at times there are problems and crises that require the power of the state to solve.”

He added: “These organisations and constituents have sent me here to return politics to public service once again. They have sent me here to restore stability to our country and our economy. They have sent me here to plug the gaps that they have often had to fill themselves.

“My constituents have stepped up for their community time and again, and it is my turn to do the same for them.”

Sewards previously stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for Harrogate and Knaresborough in the 2017 and 2019 general elections.

Before entering parliament, Sewards was elected as a Labour councillor on Leeds City Council in May 2022. He stood down from the council in 2024.

Political views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Sewards 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

Get Britain Working Group: Sewards has been listed as a member of the Get Britain Working Group of Labour MPs – a caucus supportive of the Starmer leadership’s position on welfare. The group argues for a “new social contract built on employment and opportunity”, focusing on the rising number of people out of the workforce due to long-term sickness.

In an open letter, issued upon the group’s founding in March 2025, the group expressed its support for the government’s welfare measures set out in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. The bill was subject to a significant revolt of over 120 Labour MPs – which forced ministers into a series of concessions shortly before its first vote in the House of Commons.

Ahead of the bill’s fraught second reading debate, the MPs wrote: “Our Labour values are built on a simple but powerful idea: that every individual, regardless of background or circumstance, should have the support they need to make the most of their lives.

“Everyone who is capable of working deserves the security, dignity and agency that employment offers. Of course, there are some people who are not able to work and they must be treated with compassion and respect. But for those that can, we must restore the pathways to opportunity which are currently so sparse for millions of people.

“It is exactly what a Labour government exists to do.”

Living Standards Coalition: Sewards 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.”

Brexit and Europe

Remain pledge: During the 2019 general election campaign, Sewards was one of 193 Labour candidates to sign the anti-Brexit “Remain pledge”, drawn up by the campaign group Remain Labour.

It stated: “Labour is committed to a confirmatory referendum, to give you the final say on Brexit. If elected as your Labour MP, I pledge to campaign to Remain in the EU.”

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Sewards 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

Sewards 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): Sewards 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

Mark James Sewards was born in Leeds on 6 January 1990. He attended Morley High School.

Sewards studied law at the University of Leeds, graduating in 2011. He obtained a master’s degree in education from the University of Manchester in 2018.

Sewards later obtained a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) from Sheffield Hallam University (2016).  

Before entering parliament, Sewards worked as a teacher for eight years. He was head of maths at Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy from 2021 to 2024.

Personal Life

Sewards is married. His wife, Alice Smart, has also served as a Labour councillor on Leeds City Council.

They have two sons.

Trivia

Sewards is a former maths teacher.