Matt Western

MP for Warwick and Leamington

Labour

Matt Western is the Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington, having first been elected to parliament at the 2017 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Western won 23,975 votes, representing 48.7% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, James Uffindell, received 11,563 votes (23.5%), while the Reform UK candidate, Nigel Clarke, secured 5,154 votes (10.5%). Western was duly elected with a majority of 12,412 votes

The Warwick and Leamington constituency is located in Warwickshire and includes the towns of Warwick, Leamington Spa and Whitnash. It was held by the Conservative Party from 1910 to 1997 and again from 2010 to 2017. Sir Anthony Eden, the prime minister from 1955 to 1957, represented the seat from 1923 to 1957.

Political Career

Western currently serves as chair of the joint national security strategy (since December 2024).

Western also serves as a trade envoy to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (since January 2025). Appointed by the trade secretary, envoys are tasked with boosting British exports and attracting foreign investment. An envoy’s duties typically involve leading trade delegations, lobbying host governments on market access issues, and building relationships with overseas businesses.

Additionally, Western is a member of the panel of chairs (since November 2024). The panel of chairs is made up of MPs chosen by the House of Commons speaker, typically at the beginning of every parliament, to chair public bill committees and other commons general committees. In this capacity, Western may chair debates in Westminster Hall and may also act as temporary chair during a committee of the whole House.

Western served as shadow minister for higher education (from March 2021 until the May 2024 dissolution of parliament. Before this, he was an opposition whip (February 2020 – May 2021).

In March 2026, Western praised the prime minister, Keir Starmer, for resisting “calls to wade blindly into another US war in the Middle East.” He further questioned whether Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, the leaders of the Conservative Party and Reform UK respectively, had “learned nothing from Iraq.”

Western was appointed as a government “business champion” for automotive and manufacturing in the West Midlands – a role established in February 2025 to facilitate engagement between the Labour administration and the private sector. The position was part of a network of approximately 40 MPs appointed by the Department for Business and Trade to act as conduits for industry views on government policy. The grouping operated under the oversight of Dan Tomlinson, the national “mission champion” for growth. However, the scheme was reportedly scrapped in July 2025 following a meeting at 10 Downing Street. According to a Guido Fawkes report, the business champions were told that their services were no longer required.

At the beginning of the parliament elected in 2024, Western stood unsuccessfully for election as chair of the business and trade committee. In the contest, the results of which were announced in September 2024, Western secured 251 votes, placing second. They were ultimately defeated by Liam Byrne, who won the support of 302 colleagues.

Western was a member of the House of Commons business and trade committee (2024-2026), the international trade committee (2017-2020), and the housing, communities and local government committee (2018-2019).

Western is a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for Canada, electric vehicles, international students, motor, semiconductor and video games and esports.

Western delivered his maiden speech on 12 October 2017.

In it, he said: “The prolonged lack of clarity over the post-Brexit landscape on the British economy is an issue for the majority of my constituents. Some have already voiced their concerns about potential exclusion from the EU’s data protection framework, which would impede the continued free flow of data among EU and EEA states, without which businesses and the economy will suffer.”

He added: “It is a happy coincidence that my maiden speech should coincide with the news, published yesterday in The Independent and by the BBC, that Leamington has been declared the happiest town in the UK. Delightfully, the survey that led to this finding was conducted after 8 June, which doubtless explains everything.”

Before entering parliament, Western served as a Labour councillor for Leamington Willes ward on Warwickshire County Council from 2013 to 2018.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Oppose leadership election: In May 2026, Western 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.”

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Western 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.

Labour leadership 2020: Western was one of 22 Labour MPs who nominated Emily Thornberry for the party’s leadership in early 2020. The election was triggered by the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn following the party’s defeat in the 2019 general election, which resulted in Labour’s fewest seats in the House of Commons since 1935.

Thornberry, then the shadow foreign secretary, was one of five candidates to reach the second stage of the contest. However, she was eliminated from the race on 15 February 2020 after failing to secure the required 33 nominations from Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) or three affiliated groups. This left Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, and Lisa Nandy as the three candidates on the final membership ballot.

In a post to Twitter (now X) in April 2020, Western thanked Corbyn for “leading the party these last few years”, adding: “I owe him a lot”.

Western argued that Corbyn was “was right on many things”.

Factional identity and party tradition

Living standards coalition: Western 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

Brexit referendum: Western supported Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and therefore agreed with a majority of his constituents, 58.4% of whom also voted to Remain.

People’s vote support (2019): Western signed a January 2019 statement by Labour MPs calling for a “people’s vote” or second referendum. The statement, signed by 71 Labour MPs, read: “Defeat of the Tory [Brexit] deal in a public vote would give us all a chance to campaign for the anti-austerity policies and a Labour government that deals with the true causes of the Brexit vote, and a reformed Europe that works for all people.”

Remain pledge: During the 2019 general election campaign, Western 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 ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Western 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): Western 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

Western 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): Western 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, Western 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

Matthew Raymond Western was born in November 1962. He was educated at St Albans School, Hertfordshire.

He studied geography at the University of Bristol.

Before entering politics, Western worked for many years in the automotive industry, specialising in marketing, finance and procurement. He had a 24-year career with Peugeot.