Maya Ellis is the Labour MP for Ribble Valley, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Ellis secured 18,177 votes, representing 34.9% of the vote share. The Conservative candidate, Nigel Evans, received 17,321 votes (33.3%), while the Reform UK candidate, John Carroll, obtained 8,524 votes (16.4%). Ellis was elected with a majority of 856.

The Ribble Valley constituency is located in Lancashire, North West England. Historically, it was considered a safe Conservative seat. Created in 1983, the seat was represented by a Conservative MP for its entire existence, apart from a short period following a Liberal Democrat by-election victory in 1991. The 2024 general election marked the first time Labour won the seat.

Ellis’ immediate predecessor as the MP for Ribble Valley was Nigel Evans of the Conservative Party. Evans held the seat from 1992 to 2024.

Political Career

Ellis is a member of the House of Commons housing, communities and local government select committee (since October 2024) – the committee responsible for scrutinising the policy, spending, and administration of the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government and its associated public bodies.

Ellis was appointed as a government “business champion” for tech in the North West – 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.

The selection of champions was designed to leverage the professional expertise of the 2024 intake of MPs, and the role was seen as an early step on the Westminster ladder. 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.

In October 2025, Ellis called for a parliamentary debate on the “benefits of a four-day week”. Addressing the leader of the House of Commons, Sir Alan Campbell, during business questions, Ellis referenced a joint letter sent to the secretary of state for Business by over 100 business owners and trade unionists, which requested the formation of a “working time council” to evaluate the policy’s impact.

Ellis pointed to research that showed a four-day week could improve “both productivity in business and overall wellness in society”.

In April 2026, Ellis argued that a four-day week would see “an uplift in productivity thanks to healthier, happier employees who take fewer sick days and are more likely to stay in a role.”

In June 2025, Ellis 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.”

Ellis is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for babies (pregnancy to age 2) (chair), Lancashire (chair), flexible and family-friendly working and fatherhood.

Ellis delivered her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 31 October 2024 in a debate on the budget.

In it, she said: “I grew up among passionate socialists, but I also saw the investment that small businesses all around me put into their local areas, so I am delighted to be making my maiden speech, as the first Labour MP for Ribble Valley, in this debate on a budget that truly harnesses the best of both social policy and great British enterprise.

“We need both, and we need them to work together.”

She added: “This parliament is the most diverse in history, and I, as one of those new diverse members, am able to be here with my mental health just about intact only because my husband took three months of paternity leave with both our children… I fully believe I would not be standing here now if he had not taken paternity leave.”

Before entering parliament, Ellis was elected as a parish councillor on Ribchester Parish Council.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Ellis 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

Labour Rural Research Group: Ellis has been listed as a member of the Labour Rural Research Group (LRRG) – a caucus made up of MPs representing Labour’s so-called “rural wall”. Launched in August 2025, the group’s primary aim is to ensure that policy is developed with a clear understanding of the distinct challenges and priorities of rural and semi-rural communities.

The LRRG, chaired by the Suffolk Coastal MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, conducts research and consultations to challenge what it sees as a “rural blind spot” in Whitehall.

Its first report, “Understanding Rural Britain”, surveyed voters on issues from healthcare and the economy to housing and the environment, seeking to build an evidence-based policy platform. The survey found nearly three quarters (74.4%) of respondents believe rural communities had been overlooked over the past 15 years. On the back of the report, Riddell-Carpenter stated that using the labelling rural voters as Nimbys (not in my back yard) was “toxic” and maintained “many people rightly despise the term”.

Welfare

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

Ellis voted against 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).

In a statement setting out her position, issued after the bill’s second reading, Ellis said: “I cannot in good conscience vote through something to guarantee dignity only in death, when dignity in all parts of life, is still so desperately in need of resources too, and equally as deserving.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Ellis 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 in the late 1980s, Ellis attended Ribchester Primary School and Longridge High School in Lancashire. She studied French and English Literature at Lancaster University, and later earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Central Lancashire.

Ellis worked in the media industry in London as a commercial manager at Hearst Magazines UK.

She later returned to Lancashire and held roles in local government.

Personal Life

Ellis lives in Ribchester, Lancashire, with her husband and two young children.

Trivia

Ellis is a life-long volunteer with the Girl Guides

She is the first Labour MP to represent the Ribble Valley constituency.