Maureen Burke is the Labour Party MP for Glasgow North East, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Burke won 15,639 votes, representing 45.9% of the vote. The Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate, Anne McLaughlin, received 11,002 votes (32.3%). The Scottish Green Party candidate, Ewan Lewis, secured 2,471 votes (7.2%). Burke was duly elected with a majority of 4,637.

The Glasgow North East constituency was created in 2005. It was by Michael Martin as speaker until his resignation as an MP in 2009. Labour then held the seat until 2015. The SNP won the constituency at the 2019 general election.

Burke’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Glasgow North East was Anne McLaughlin.

Political Career

Burke is a member of the House of Commons Scottish affairs select committee (since October 2024) – the committee responsible for scrutinising the expenditure, administration and policies of the Scotland Office and its associated bodies. The committee also examines the wider UK government, assessing policies and legislation that are relevant to Scotland.

In May 2026, Burke 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, she said: “Our party owes Keir a debt of gratitude for his leadership, but we are bigger than one person. With a heavy heart, I am calling on the prime minister to set out a timetable for his departure and for our party to have a period of reflection with any and all candidates willing to have the chance to put themselves forward.”

Burke is listed as chair of the grief support and the impact of death on society all-party parliamentary group (APPG).

Burke delivered her maiden speech on 15 October 2024 in a debate on the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill.

In it, she said: “I grew up in a typical working-class Glasgow household – a big family, a small home, but lots of love. That began with my parents. Sadly, both my parents suffered from tuberculosis, forcing my elder siblings and I to leave school at an early age without qualifications in order to seek employment to become the family’s breadwinners.

“However, in my late 30s, I had the chance to take an IT course at John Wheatley college that gave me the opportunities to change my life. It is only fitting that this significant milestone in my life was made possible at a college named after yet another of my predecessors, who did so much to improve social housing in our country under our first Labour government.”

She added: “Education and further education are a route out of poverty. It gives you a sense of achievement, self-belief and the confidence that anything is possible. Education, no matter at what age, can be a catalyst that sets you off on a journey that you could never have imagined – in my case, a journey from the factory floor to the Palace of Westminster.”

Before entering parliament, Burke was elected as a Labour councillor on Glasgow City Council in 2012. She stepped down from this post in September 2024.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Burke 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: Burke 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.”

Fair elections APPG: Burke 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.

Welfare

Welfare ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Burke 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): Burke 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

Burke 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): Burke 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

Born Maureen Burke in September 1958, she grew up in the Easterhouse area of Glasgow. She worked as a factory operative at a tie manufacturing factory in Bridgeton from the age of 15, later moving into administrative support there until the company closed in 2000.

She later studied an IT course at John Wheatley College and subsequently worked as a parliamentary assistant for Labour MP Margaret Curran until 2015.

Personal Life

Burke lives in Easterhouse, Glasgow, with her husband. She has one daughter.

Trivia

Burke gave evidence in the 2018 embezzlement trial of a former Labour council colleague for whom she had previously worked as a personal assistant.