Sojan Joseph is the Labour Party MP for Ashford, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Joseph gained the Ashford seat for Labour, defeating the incumbent Conservative MP Damian Green. Joseph received 15,262 votes (32.5%), Green received 13,483 votes (28.7%) and the Reform UK candidate, Tristram Kennedy Harper, secured 10,141 votes (21.6%). Joseph was duly elected with a majority of 1,779.

The Ashford constituency is located in Kent, South East England. It was represented continuously by Conservative MPs from 1931 to the 2024 election.

Joseph’s immediate predecessor as the MP for Ashford, Damian Green of the Conservative Party, held the seat from 1997 to 2024. Green served as first secretary of state (de facto deputy prime minister) in 2017.

Political Career

Joseph is a member of the House of Commons environmental audit (since January 2026) – the commons select committee that acts as parliament’s primary cross-departmental watchdog on environmental issues. The EAC has a wide-ranging remit to examine how the policies and programmes of all government departments and public bodies impact environmental protection and sustainable development.

Joseph was also a member of the public bill committee for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill from January to March 2025.

In May 2026, Joseph 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 February 2026, Joseph expressed criticisms about the government’s proposed overhaul of indefinite leave to remain (ILR) guidelines in a Westminster Hall debate. The session, which was triggered by two public petitions signed by over 330,000 people, focused on Home Office proposals to replace the established five-year pathway to permanent residency (also known as indefinite leave to remain or settlement) with a 10-year baseline under an “earned settlement” model.

In the debate, Joseph warned that extending timelines to 10 or 15 years would drive overseas care workers to competitors like Australia or Canada.

He stated: “We should do everything we can to encourage both the recruitment and retention of workers. After all, retaining trained care workers is significantly cheaper and more reliable than replacing them.

“But if overseas workers who are already working in social care will have to wait 10 or 15 years to get indefinite leave to remain, they may be tempted to move to other countries such as Australia or Canada that offer quicker routes to similar settlement status.”

In January 2026, Joseph 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.”

Joseph is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for adult social care (chair), global tuberculosis (chair) and mental health (chair).

Joseph delivered his maiden speech on 23 July 2024 during a debate on immigration and home affairs.

In it, he said: “Having worked in the NHS as a mental health nurse for the past 22 years, this is a subject I hold close to my heart, and it is certainly something I would like to look into.

“I have seen children as young as nine years old self-harming, and I have seen many people, young and old, end their life while waiting for treatment. This is a serious issue, and it must be addressed.”

He added: “We face an ever-growing yet ageing population, leading to hospital overcrowding and a heavy dependence on social care, which is itself hanging by a thread.

“Yet the hospitals are severely understaffed and hugely underfunded, to the point that we can no longer fulfil people’s demands or catch up with these growing issues.”

Before entering parliament, Joseph was elected as a Labour councillor on Ashford Borough Council in May 2023. He stood down from this position in September 2024.

Political views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Joseph 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

Living Standards Coalition: Joseph 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.”

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Joseph 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

Joseph 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).

Before Politics

Joseph was born in the state of Kerala, India. He emigrated to the UK and settled in Ashford in 2002.

He worked in the National Health Service for 22 years, primarily in mental health services.

He joined the Labour Party in 2015.

Personal Life

Joseph is of British Indian heritage. He is married and has three children.

Trivia

Joseph is the first Labour MP to represent Ashford in parliament.