Peter Bedford is the Conservative Party MP for Mid Leicestershire, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Bedford won 17,735 votes, representing 36.9% of the vote. The Labour Party candidate, Robert Martin, received 15,534 votes (32.3%), while the Reform UK candidate, Tom Smith, secured 8,923 votes (18.6%). Bedford was duly elected with a majority of 2,201.

The Mid Leicestershire constituency was created for the 2024 general election, primarily from the former Charnwood constituency along with parts of Bosworth and South Leicestershire. The predecessor Charnwood seat was represented by Edward Argar from 2015 to 2024 and by Stephen Dorrel from 1997 to 2015.

Bedford is one of 26 new Conservative MPs that entered parliament at the 2024 general election.

Political Career

Bedford currently serves as shadow pensions minister and shadow parliamentary under secretary of state, jointly in the shadow Treasury and work and pensions teams. Bedford was appointed to this role as part of the August/September 2026 shadow ministerial reshuffle, Kemi Badenoch’s second as Conservative leader.

Bedford served as parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the shadow work and pensions team on the Conservative frontbench.

Bedford is also a member of the House of Commons work and pensions select committee (since October 2024) – the committee responsible for scrutinising the policies and spending of the Department for Work and Pensions and associated bodies.

Bedford has been listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for apprenticeships, Canada and liver disease and liver cancer.

Bedford delivered his maiden speech on 22 July 2024 in a debate on economy, welfare and public services.

In it, he said: “Many of my constituents have legitimate concerns about overdevelopment and the lack of infrastructure to cope with the strains that population growth brings.

“I think of villages such as Ratby, which has seen its population almost double over the last 10 years, and where, even today, developers are willing to take advantage of the borough council’s lack of a local plan.

“I urge the incoming government to ensure that local communities, not faceless bureaucrats in Whitehall, always have the final say on development across our green and beautiful countryside.”

He added: “As the eldest of three children in a single-parent family, I passionately believe that it does not matter who you are or where you were born; it is what you do with your life that matters. Life chances, owning your own home, getting a career and having a family should not be the exclusive preserve of the wealthy, but should be opportunities available to all.”

Bedford served as a Conservative councillor on Leicestershire County Council from 2017 to 2025. He previously stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for the Bolsover constituency in the 2015 general election, finishing second to Labour’s Dennis Skinner.

Political views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Tory leadership 2024: Bedford supported Robert Jenrick’s candidacy in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election. The contest was triggered by the resignation of Rishi Sunak following the party’s defeat in the 2024 general election.

Jenrick, a former immigration minister, positioned himself on the right wing of the party, advocating for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). He emerged as an early frontrunner, topping the first two parliamentary ballots. After reaching the final two, he was defeated in the membership vote by Kemi Badenoch, receiving 41,388 votes (43.5%) compared to Badenoch’s 53,806 (56.5%).

Setting out his endorsement, Bedford said: “After spending the summer listening to leadership contenders I’ve decided to back [Jenrick] to be the next leader of the Conservatives.

“Robert understands the ‘common ground’: he is the best placed candidate to take us to victory at the next general election.”

Factional identity and party tradition

In a March 2026 article for ConservativeHome, Bedford said: “Conservatism, Thatcherism, let alone engagement with the political process was not something we as a family engaged with. But it was certainly the Thatcherite instincts of Aspiration, Opportunity, and Hard-work that has allowed me to ‘get on’ – despite my humble and challenging upbringing.

“Sadly, those on the political left, who subscribe to identity politics, may look at me, a mixed-race, working-class lad from a single parent family and wonder why I am a Conservative.

“Mrs Thatcher just got it didn’t she?

“She changed the Conservative Party from acceptance of ‘managed decline’ to a party of optimism and aspiration. She understood that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from; it’s what you do with your life that matters. I was certainly not walking the streets of Eton or Harrow in my youth.”

Mass deportation: In May 2025, Bedford signed an early day motion (EDM) concerning the mass deportation of illegal migrants. The motion, tabled by the independent MP Rupert Lowe, expressed “grave concern at the continued presence of over one million illegal migrants in the United Kingdom”.

The EDM urged the government to “implement a comprehensive national strategy to identify, detain, and deport all individuals found to be residing in the United Kingdom illegally, and to ensure that such policies are backed by the necessary legislative, diplomatic, logistical and financial resources to restore confidence in the rule of law and the security of our borders.”

Lucy Connolly EDM: In May 2025, Bedford again joined a small, cross-party group of MPs in signing a parliamentary motion expressing concern over the imprisonment of Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for inciting racial hatred in a social media post following the knife attacks in Southport. Connolly posted online calling for “mass deportation now”, adding “set fire to all the… hotels [housing asylum seekers]… for all I care”.

EDM, tabled by Lowe, stated that Connolly was a young mother convicted of a non-violent offence during a period of “unprecedented overcrowding” in the prison system.

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Bedford voted against the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the ten-minute rule procedure by Liberal Democrat Europe spokesperson Al Pinkerton, sought to mandate the government to enter into negotiations with the European Union to establish a bespoke customs union.

Assisted dying

Bedford 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).

In his 2024 maiden speech, Bedford said: “Dignity towards the end of life will continue to climb up the political agenda, particularly given our ever-ageing population.

“My election to this House is tinged with sadness that my grandparents are not around to see me give my maiden speech. Both were diagnosed with incurable cancer and, like millions across the country, they wanted greater control of their lives in their final days.”

Bedford also addressed the commons during the bill’s third reading debate.

He told the House: “In her final weeks, my nan told me that it was her time to go, that she had made peace with her God, and that she did not want to endure the next few weeks of decline in her physical and mental health. Days before her death, she was hallucinating from the high dose of medication to treat her pain, telling me vividly how she was flying a spaceship.

“That was not how she wanted to spend her final weeks, and I know that because she told me so. She, like so many others, had been denied her final wish.”

He added: “There are those in this House, often through religious beliefs or otherwise, who could never support a bill of this kind. That is their right and I respect that. But that right should not extend to denying the choice to other people.

“There are those who argue for what they see as even greater safeguards, but we should remember that legislation must be balanced and workable in the real world beyond this chamber. The bill is not about shortening life; it is about shortening death.”

Before Politics

Born Peter Alexander Bedford on 3 February 1986 in Northamptonshire, he moved to Leicestershire to attend university. He studied law at the University of Leicester.

After graduating, he qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Personal Life

Bedford grew up in Northamptonshire in a single-parent family. He is of British Indian and English heritage.

He is the eldest of three children.

Trivia

Bedford was one of 20 Tory MPs to back the assisted dying bill at third reading.