Matt Turmaine is the Labour MP for Watford, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Turmaine won 15,708 votes, representing 35.3% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Dean Russell, received 10,985 votes (24.7%), while the Liberal Democrat candidate, Ian Stotesbury, secured 7,577 votes (17.0%). Turmaine was duly elected with a majority of 4,723.  

The Watford constituency is located in Hertfordshire in the East of England. The seat was held by the Conservative Party from 2010 to 2024, and before that by Labour from 1997 to 2010.

Political Career

Turmaine is a member of the House of Commons public accounts committee (since December 2025). The PAC is the oldest and arguably one of the most powerful select committees in the House of Commons. Its primary function is to scrutinise the value for money of public spending, ensuring taxpayers’ money is spent wisely. First established in 1857, the committee does not examine the merits of government policy, only the cost and effectiveness of its implementation.

In May 2026, Turmaine 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 June 2025, Turmaine 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.”

Turmaine is a patron of LGBT+ Labour – a socialist society formally affiliated with the Labour Party.

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

In it, he said: “The Labour government, who have swept to power on a tide of desire for change, have core missions at their heart. This government will make a difference to the community in which I live.

“They will offer it hope once more, where fear and despair currently reside. I am also confident that the government will restore growth and wealth to the economy, liberating people from fear and timidity.”

He added: “I am a part of the community that I now represent. I sprang from a maternal heritage of Welsh schoolteachers and coal miners and a paternal one of Huguenots fleeing persecution and making their home here.

“I want to thank the voters of Watford for sending me to this place.

“It is a source of wonder and amazement to me that, as a child of a hot metal printer and a dressmaker, I can be on these benches helping to make this change happen.”

Before entering parliament, Turmaine was elected as a Labour councillor on Watford Borough Council in 2012. He stood down as a councillor in 2025.

Turmaine previously stood unsuccessfully for parliament as the Labour candidate in Watford in the 2015 general election and for Chesham and Amersham in 2019.

Political Views

Factional identity and party tradition

Living Standards Coalition: Turmaine 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.”

Labour Movement for Europe: Turmaine 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”.

Electoral reform

Electoral reform amendment: In May 2026, Turmaine 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.”

Proportional representation bill: In December 2024, Turmaine voted in favour of the Elections (Proportional Representation) Bill – introduced by Liberal Democrat frontbencher Sarah Olney under the 10-minute rule procedure. The bill sought to “introduce a system of proportional representation for parliamentary elections and for local government elections in England”.

A total of 138 MPs supported the bill – with 136 opposed. Notably, 59 Labour MPs backed Olney’s bill.

Introducing the bill, Olney told the House: “First past the post is a broken and unfair system. This summer, the Labour party won a landslide election victory, securing 63% of seats in the House of Commons in return for just 34% of the vote.

“The system leaves millions of voices unheard and creates a divisive, adversarial political climate where collaboration is discouraged and accountability is often sidestepped.”

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Turmaine 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

Turmaine 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): Turmaine 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, Turmaine 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

Turmaine was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in 1969. He attended St Clement Danes School in Chorleywood.

Turmaine studied economics and modern history at the University of Birmingham.

Turmaine’s career before entering frontline politics centred on communication and advocacy roles. He worked in public relations for BBC Worldwide between 1998 and 2001.

Personal Life

Turmaine is married. He has lived in Watford since 2011.

Trivia

Turmaine has visited nearly every state in the United States and reportedly slept rough in Los Angeles.

Turmaine supports Watford FC.