Sam Rushworth is the Labour MP for Bishop Auckland, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Rushworth won 17,036 votes, representing 42.1% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Jane MacBean, received 10,364 votes (25.6%), while the Reform UK candidate, Rhys Burriss, secured 9,466 votes (23.4%). Rushworth was duly elected with a majority of 6,672.

The Bishop Auckland constituency is located in County Durham, North East England. The seat was created in 1885. It was held by the Labour Party from 1935 to 2019 and the Conservatives from 2019 to 2024.

Rushworth’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Bishop Auckland was Dehenna Davison of the Conservative Party, who stood down at the 2024 general election. Notable previous Labour MPs include former chancellor Hugh Dalton (1929-1931 and 1935-1959) and former opposition chief whip Derek Foster (1979-2005).

Political Career

Rushworth is a member of the House of Commons international development select committee (since October 2024) – the committee responsible for scrutinising the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in respect of aid policy.

In May 2026, Rushworth was among the over 100 Labour MPs who signed a joint statement insisting it was “no time for a leadership contest.” The letter was an intervention in the political crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s premiership, after Labour suffered heavy losses in the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru. It was organised as a counterweight to a mounting rebellion that had seen high-profile figures, including some ministers, call for Starmer’s resignation.

The statement read: “Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs.

“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.”

In January 2026, Rushworth was one of over 60 Labour MPs to sign a letter to the prime minister calling for the introduction of an Australia-style ban on social media access for children under the age of 16. Organised by Plymouth Moor View MP Fred Thomas, the initiative brought together a cross-factional coalition of backbenchers – spanning the Socialist Campaign Group, Tribune Group and Blue Labour – to demand action.

The letter called on Keir Starmer to “show leadership” by introducing a minimum age for social media access “to protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms”.

It stated: “We are all strong supporters of technology, and of this Labour government’s ambition to use tech to improve lives. But successive governments have done far too little to protect young people from the consequences of unregulated, addictive social media platforms.”

Rushworth is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for climate, nature and security, men and boys’ issues (co-chair), rural services and T-levels.

Rushworth delivered his maiden speech on 19 July 2024 during a debate on planning, the green belt and rural affairs.

In it, he said: “We have just accepted the decline of northern heartlands like Bishop Auckland for too long. I live in the town centre, where one in three shops is boarded up. Our local businesses are excited to see the powers that this government will devolve to local authorities to compulsorily purchase some of those buildings.

“We will hand them over to businesses and we will get our town centres booming again.”

He added: “I am proud to be a member of the most representative parliament in our history, with the highest percentage of women, minorities and state-educated members.

“I hope that if I can excel in anything, it will be in showing kindness and respect to my fellow members, to the incredible staff who have done so much to make me feel welcome in this rather strange place, and to my constituents who I hope will always know, whatever our disagreements, that I love and care about them.”

Rushworth previously stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate for Tatton in the 2017 general election and for Blackpool North and Cleveleys in the 2015 election.

Political views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Rushworth 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

Labour Rural Research Group: Rushworth 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”.

Living Standards Coalition: Rushworth 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.”

SERA: Rushworth 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 ‘reasoned amendment’ (June 2025): Rushworth 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): Rushworth 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

Rushworth 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): Rushworth voted against 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.

Rushworth was one of 25 Labour MPs to vote against the amendment.

Palestine

Palestinian recognition letter (July 2025): In July 2025, Rushworth 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

Samuel Jonathan Rushworth was born in 1984 and grew up in Blackpool. He attended Hodgson High School in Poulton-le-Fylde.

Rushworth studied economics and social studies at the University of Manchester, graduating in 2008. He went on to obtain a master’s degree in international development from the same institution in 2009.

Rushworth completed a PhD in education and international development at the University of East Anglia in 2017.

Rushworth worked as a tutor and lecturer from 2011 to 2016, including at the University of East Anglia. He went on to hold campaigns and advisory roles, including as special adviser to head of strategy at the Aegis Trust (2019-2022).

In 2019, Rushworth co-founded African Dreams Ltd, a consultancy focused on development projects in Rwanda.

From 2023 to 2024, Rushworth was a programme manager at the University of Durham.

Personal Life

Rushworth is married. He has five children.

He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church.

In July 2025, Rushworth spoke in a Westminster Hall debate on the freedom of religion.

He stated: “The right to share one’s faith must also entail the right to criticise that faith. I am a Latter-day Saint. I see that The Book of Mormon musical is on in the west end all the time. I am comfortable with that.

“I absolutely defend the right for people to criticise me or my faith, but there is a difference between criticising theological beliefs and stereotyping, or ascribing negative traits without evidence to the holders of those beliefs.”

Rushworth is reportedly the only MP who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Rushworth has said that “Morman” is “not a label I identify with”. He chose the secular affirmation upon taking the oath of allegiance in 2024.

Trivia

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Rushworth and his family walked the 325km Coast to Coast path across Britain to raise over £1,000 for the charity Children North East.