Peter Lamb is the Labour MP for Crawley, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Lamb won 17,453 votes, representing 38.2% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Zack Ali, received 12,218 votes (26.8%), while the Reform UK candidate, Tim Charters, secured 8,447 votes (18.5%). Lamb was duly elected with a majority of 5,235 votes.

The Crawley constituency, located in West Sussex in the South East of England, is generally considered a marginal seat, having been held by both the Conservative and Labour parties at different times since its creation in 1983.

Lamb’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Crawley was Henry Smith of the Conservative Party. Smith held the seat from 2010 to 2024.

Political Career

Lamb is a member of the House of Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee (since October 2024). Pacac examines how the country is run, covering both the machinery of government and the UK’s constitutional rules. It is the principal select committee to which Cabinet Office ministers are accountable.

Lamb was one of the first Labour MPs to call for Keir Starmer to resign as prime minister in February 2026. The Labour MP pointed to the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal, but argued it was just the “most visible form” of many “clear questions” about Starmer’s judgement.

He stated: “I think when you look at the number of U-turns, the number of policies floated and then ditched… Clearly there is a question with judgement here.”

Lamb reiterated his call for Starmer to resign after the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru.

He said: “The prime minister has repeatedly stressed the importance of listening to the voters, so I am relaying their message to him: he must announce a timetable for his departure so we can elect a new leader to deliver on the concerns of our constituents.”

Lamb established himself as a vocal critic of the UK-Mauritius agreement to handover sovereignty of the Chagos Islands – including the UK-US airbase on Diego Garcia. In October 2024, he said the decision to hand over the islands was “very disappointing” as Chagossians had been “let down again”.

Lamb’s Crawley constituency is home to the largest community of Chagossians in the UK. In January 2025, he accused David Lammy, the foreign secretary, of misleading the House of Commons over claims the government had “kept the Chagossians informed all along the way.”

In May 2025, Lamb argued that the deal “denies the Chagossian people their right to self-determination” and he was one of three Labour MPs to vote in favour of changes to the Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill in January 2026.

In a letter to the government chief whip at the time, Lamb said: “From the point at which the deal was first announced, I have been vocal that the decision as to the future of the Chagos islands belongs to the Chagossians, as part of their inalienable right to self-determination

“The amendments passed by the House of Lords would enable this right to be acknowledged, resolving any uncertainty as to the wishes of the Chagossian community and providing parliament with mechanisms for ensuring that the commitments made by Mauritius to the UK over Chagos are honoured.

“It is hard for me to see a good reason why the government would object to either of these changes.”

In March 2025, Lamb introduced a private member’s bill (PMB) to establish an automatic registration system for free school meals to ensure that eligible children receive their entitlement without their parents having to apply.

The Free School Meals (Automatic Registration of Eligible Children) Bill would require local authorities in England to identify each child of school age resident in its area who is eligible for free school meals, and also require state-funded schools that identify a child eligible for free school meals to inform the local education authority.

Speaking during the bill’s second reading debate, Lamb argued that the proposed legislation would “ensure that the children whom this House has already stated should receive free school meals receive them automatically, unless their parents actively opt out of the system.”

He told the House: “It will not require a penny more in expenditure than is necessary to fulfil the social contract that generations of Parliaments have sustained with our poorest children… Low uptake of free school meals is now directly limiting the funding available to those schools where it would make the most difference to educational outcomes.”

In June 2025, Lamb 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.”

Lamb is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for wellbeing economics (chair) and Kurds.

Lamb delivered his maiden speech on 11 September 2024 during a debate on building safety and resilience.

In it, he said: “Thanks to the long history of municipal socialism in the town – our early fathers and mothers include Alf Pegler, Bert Crane and Brenda Smith – we are blessed with fantastic facilities, such as K2, the Hawth and Tilgate Park, home to many of my happiest memories, including marrying the love of my life.”

He added: “I was proud to campaign in the election on a Labour platform championing the development of new towns as an alternative to the high-cost, low-quality urban extensions and infilling that we have all too often seen.

“I am pleased that the government have already announced their first site, and I hope that many more will now follow, using the same mechanisms developed and deployed by Nye Bevan to bring an end to the appalling housing conditions that the country faced in 1946.”

Before entering parliament, Lamb was elected as a Labour councillor on Crawley Borough Council in 2020. He was leader of Crawley Borough Council from 2014 until 2022 and stepped down as a councillor in September 2024.

Lamb also served as a councillor on West Sussex County Council from 2013 to 2017.

Lamb previously stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for Crawley in the 2019 general election.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Lamb was one of 24 Labour MPs who nominated Bell Ribeiro-Addy 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.

Ribeiro-Addy, a member of the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG), was seen as the candidate on the left of the party. She secured only 24 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), far short of the 80 required under rules introduced in 2021.

Factional identity and party tradition

Socialism26: In May 2026, Lamb was a founding signatory of Socialism26, a political initiative and pressure group launched by a coalition of Labour MPs and general secretaries from several major affiliated trade unions, including Unison, Aslef, the CWU, the TSSA and the FBU. The group described itself as advocating a “programme for change” intended to facilitate a “progressive political reset” within the Labour Party. It called for a return to traditional socialist values and greater internal party democracy.

The initiative was built upon a set of policy demands, including urging the government to “recognise the genocide in Gaza”, deliver full compensation for the “Waspi” women affected by state pension age changes, protect civil liberties and embrace intervention to lower energy bills.

Socialism26 described this programme as “the bare minimum to ensure that the public can see and feel the difference a socialist government makes to their lives.”

Mainstream: Lamb is a member of Mainstream, a centre-left network within the Labour Party. The group was launched in September 2025 by the think tank Compass and the activist group Open Labour. It describes itself as a home for “Labour’s radical realists” and aims to influence the direction of the Labour government. It has called on the government to offer a “popular, principled and practical left politics for meaningful change.”

Compass has described the group as “an independent vehicle with the sole task of saving the Labour Party from its clear drift to the right and the unintended paving of the way to a Reform government.”

The group is backed by a number of senior Labour figures, including the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and includes MPs and peers from various traditions within the party – from the left, soft left and the more progressive elements of New Labour.

SERA: Lamb 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”.

Labour Movement for Europe: Lamb was endorsed by the Labour Movement for Europe (LME) in the 2024 general election. Founded in 1981, LME is a pro-European socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. It campaigns for a close relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The organisation refers to itself as the “home of the pro-Europeans in the Labour and trade union movement”.

Brexit and Europe

Customs union vote (2025): In December 2025, Lamb voted in favour of the UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill. The bill, introduced under the 10-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. In total, 13 Labour MPs joined the Liberal Democrats in supporting the motion, while the majority of the party abstained.

Remain pledge: During the 2019 general election campaign, Lamb 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): Lamb 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.

In May 2025, Lamb had signed a letter warning the government that the cuts were “impossible to support” and calling for a change in direction.

The letter, signed by 42 Labour MPs, read: “The planned cuts of more than £7bn represent the biggest attack on the welfare state since George Osborne ushered in the years of austerity and over 3 million of our poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected.

“Whilst the government may have correctly diagnosed the problem of a broken benefits system and a lack of job opportunities for those who are able to work, they have come up with the wrong medicine. Cuts don’t create jobs, they just cause more hardship.”

Welfare vote (July 2025): Lamb 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

Lamb voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at third reading (June 2025).

In a statement issued in May 2025, Lamb said: “Truth be told, I had thought that making up my mind on this would be easy. Assisted dying has always seemed to be the next great liberal reform.

“At the end of this process, I have come to believe that whatever the good motivations of those proposing this bill, the ethical argument they have put forward exists only so long as effective palliative care is not delivered and that despite the carefully thought-out safeguards included within the bill, its implementation and the wider consequences will go far further than they have considered.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Lamb 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, Lamb 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

Born in Crawley in 1986, Lamb studied modern history and politics at the University of Southampton, graduating in 2007. He subsequently obtained a master’s degree in citizenship and governance from the same institution (2008).

In 2004, Lamb re-founded Southampton University Labour Club.

Lamb interned at Compass and the Constitution Unit of University College London from 2008 to 2009.

He was an office manager for Labour MP Laura Moffat from 2009 to 2010.

Lamb held a series of campaign and advisory roles before his election to parliament.

Personal Life

Lamb was born and raised in Crawley. He is married.

Trivia

Lamb joined the Labour Party in 2002.