Paul Waugh is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Rochdale, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Waugh won 13,027 votes (representing 32.8% of the vote). The Workers Party of Britain candidate, George Galloway, received 11,587 votes (29.2%), while the Reform UK candidate, Michael Howard, secured 6,773 votes (17.1%). Waugh was duly elected with a majority of 1,440.

The Rochdale constituency is located in Greater Manchester. It has a complex recent electoral history. The seat’s long-serving Labour MP Tony Lloyd died in January 2024, triggering a by-election in February 2024. This contest was won by George Galloway after Labour withdrew support from its own candidate.

The seat was represented by Liberal/Liberal Democrat MPs from 1972 to 1997 and again from 2005 to 2010.

Political Career

Waugh currently serves as parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department for Education. He was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Waugh served as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the leader of the House of Lords from September 2025 to July 2026. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder. Although they cannot speak for the government in debates, a PPS is bound by collective responsibility and becomes part of the so-called “payroll vote”, expected to support the official line in all divisions.

Waugh has sat as a member of the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee (2024-2025).

Waugh delivered his maiden speech on 3 September 2024 during a debate on the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill.

In it, he said: “Politicians and journalists have more in common than either would like to admit. At their best, both are honourable trades – and they are trades; they are not professions – but the big difference between us is the difference between criticism and action, between commentary and doing.

“In the end, I could no longer just write about the appalling state of our public services; I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to do something about the NHS workers like my wife, who came home every night exhausted by a sheer lack of staff.

“I wanted to do something about all those working-class kids like me whose destinies are still too often determined by their postcode, not by their potential.”

Before entering parliament, Waugh had a long and prominent career as a political journalist).

Waugh put himself forward for the Labour candidacy in the February 2024 Rochdale by-election but was unsuccessful in the selection process. Labour’s campaign in Rochdale subsequently descended into chaos after audio recordings emerged of its candidate, Azhar Ali, suggesting that Israel had deliberately “allowed” the 7 October massacre to go ahead. After initially defending him, the Labour leadership was ultimately forced to withdraw all support. However, as the deadline to replace Ali had passed, he remained on the ballot as the official Labour candidate. George Galloway ultimately triumphed with 12,335 votes, representing 39.7% of the vote share and a majority of 5,697.

Waugh was selected as the Labour candidate for Rochdale ahead of the 2024 general election. During the campaign, Waugh described Galloway as an “extremist” and “Putin’s parrot”.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Waugh 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

SERA: Waugh has been listed as a member of the Socialist Environment and Resources Association (SERA) – a socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. Founded in 1973, SERA is the party’s official environmental campaign group. The organisation campaigns on a wide range of issues, including renewable energy, biodiversity, air quality and the transition to a green economy. SERA describes its member MPs as “champions for the environment”.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Waugh 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

Waugh 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).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Waugh 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, Waugh 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

Waugh grew up in Rochdale and attended Oulder Hill Community School.

Waugh studied philosophy and physiology at the University of Oxford, graduating in 1988.

Waugh’s career centered on roles in journalism before entering frontline politics. He was deputy political editor of the Independent from 1998 to 2004 and held the same role at the Evening Standard from 2004 to 2010.

Waugh was editor of PoliticsHome from 2010 to 2015. He served as the i paper’s chief political commentator from 2021 to 2024.

Personal Life

Waugh was raised on a council estate in Spotland, Rochdale.

Trivia

Waugh is a supporter of the Rochdale Hornets RLFC.