Stephanie Peacock is the Labour MP for Barnsley South, having first been elected to parliament for the predecessor seat of Barnsley East at the 2017 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Peacock received 16,399 votes, representing 46.7% of the vote share. The Reform UK candidate, David White, received 11,651 votes (33.2%), while the Conservative candidate, Suzanne Pearson, secured 3,247 votes (9.3%). Peacock was duly re-elected with a majority of 4,748 votes.

The Barnsley South constituency is located in South Yorkshire and covers the southern parts of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, including areas such as Wombwell, Hoyland, Darfield, and Worsbrough.  

It is a new constituency created for the 2024 general election, formed primarily from the abolished Barnsley East constituency, with additions from the former Wentworth and Dearne and Barnsley Central seats. The predecessor Barnsley East seat was a safe Labour constituency located in a former mining area.

Political Career

Peacock currently serves as parliamentary under-secretary of state in the enlarged Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. She was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Peacock served as parliamentary under-secretary of state for sport, media, civil society and youth in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport from July 2024 to July 2026.

Prior to the 2024 general election, which saw Labour returned to power after 14 years in opposition, Peacock served as shadow minister for sport, gambling and media (July 2022 – July 2024), shadow minister for defence (May 2021 – July 2022) and shadow minister for environment, food and rural affairs (April 2020 – May 2021). She also briefly served in the shadow cabinet office team covering veterans and procurement (January – April 2020).

Previously, Peacock served as an opposition whip from January 2018 until March 2019. She resigned from this position after defying the party whip to vote against an amendment proposing a second Brexit referendum.

In her resignation letter, Peacock stated: “I was elected on the Labour manifesto that pledged to respect the result of the 2016 EU [European Union] referendum. The people of Barnsley elected me to honour that promise and that is what I did tonight.

“I felt in all good conscience had to vote tonight to clearly rule out any form of second referendum. I believe the people spoke in 2016 and we need to enact their decision.”

She added: “I look forward to working with you to deliver a Labour government.”

Peacock has successfully campaigned to increase the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving from 14 years to life imprisonment.

Peacock was a member of the House of Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee (2020-2022), the women and equalities committee (2019-2019), the international trade committee (2017-2018), and the science, innovation and technology committee (2017-2017).

Peacock delivered her maiden speech on 12 July 2017 during a debate following the Grenfell Tower fire.

In it, she said: “Many people will know about Barnsley’s history, and there is so much to be proud of, but still I have constituents waiting for justice for what happened to them at Orgreave in 1984. We must ensure that the Grenfell victims do not wait as long.”

She added: “I will continue that fight for working people, not least for the many trapped in jobs that are more precarious than ever before. Today’s debate reminds us of what we have fought for over so many years, of how the lessons of the past are still as relevant today, and of how, even now, not all communities are equal and the protection of human life requires our action in this House.”

Peacock introduced Gordon Brown at the launch for his Labour leadership campaign in 2007 following Tony Blair’s resignation as prime minister. At the time, she was described by Guardian political editor Michael White as a “young Labour apparatchik”.

Peacock sat on Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) from 2007 to 2011.

Political Views

Leadership elections and loyalty

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Peacock was one of 117 Labour MPs who nominated Lucy Powell 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.

Powell, the former leader of the House of Commons, was seen as a candidate representing the party’s “soft left”; she was supported by leading soft left figures including Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham. She secured 117 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), above the 80 required, and went on to win the election – defeating Bridget Phillipson with 54.3% of the vote.

Labour leadership 2020: Peacock was one of 31 Labour MPs who nominated Lisa Nandy for the party’s leadership in early 2020. The election was triggered by the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn following the party’s defeat in the 2019 general election, which resulted in Labour’s fewest seats in the House of Commons since 1935.

Nandy, the MP for Wigan, argued that the party needed a “bridge” to reconnect with traditional working-class voters in northern England. She finished third in the contest with 16.2% of the vote.

Factional identity and party tradition

Tribune group (2017): Peacock was listed among the supporters of the Tribune parliamentary group – a caucus generally described as representing the party’s “soft left”.

The Tribune group was initially formed in 1964 to support the newspaper of the same name. It served as a prominent forum for those parliamentarians situated on the left of the Labour Party – but it split over Tony Benn’s campaign for the deputy leadership in 1981. Benn’s supporters founded the Campaign group – which evolved into the Socialist Campaign Group (SCG). Today, the Bennite SCG is strongly associated with the Labour left tradition.

During the 1980s, the Tribune group emerged as a more natural home for those on Labour’s “soft left”.

In 2017, Efford officially re-launched the group with a new mission statement calling for “opportunity and aspiration” to be placed at the heart of the party’s programme. Efford said he had reformed the group to ensure that the centre-left of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) “have a space in which to put forward ideas and debate which has not been there under successive leaders”.

He added: “The view of Labour MPs at the moment tends to be that too much are just Blairites who want to stab Jeremy Corbyn in the back. We want to show that is not where we are, and that we want to develop our own ideas that represent the centre-left of the party.”

Brexit and Europe

Brexit referendum: Peacock supported Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and therefore disagreed with a majority of her constituents, 71% of whom voted to Leave.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Peacock 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

Peacock 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): Peacock 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.

Foreign policy and security

Sanctioned (Russia): In April 2022, Peacock was among the group of MPs placed on a sanctions list by the Russian government. The measure barred them from entering Russia and was presented by Moscow as a retaliatory response to the UK’s stance on the invasion of Ukraine.

Before Politics

Born Stephanie Louise Peacock in Birmingham in 1986, she studied history at Queen Mary University of London. She subsequently obtained a master’s degree from the institute of education, University College London (UCL) and qualified as a teacher.

Peacock worked as a secondary school history teacher before moving into adult education, working for the trade union USDAW’s lifelong learning campaign across Yorkshire.

Peacock then worked for four years as a political officer for the GMB trade union prior to her election to parliament in 2017.

Personal Life

Peacock lives in Barnsley.  

Trivia

Peacock is a keen long-distance runner, having completed the London Marathon in 2019.

In November 2018, Peacock was reprimanded for playing football in the chamber of the House of Commons alongside fellow Women’s Parliamentary Football teammates, Alison McGovern, Tracey Crouch, Louise Haigh and Hannah Bardell. It came after Bardell posted a video on social media of herself playing keepie uppie on the floor of the commons.

Bardell posted to Twitter (now X): “The women’s parliamentary football team should have played their first match tonight.

“Myself [Alison McGovern, Tracey Crouch, Louise Haigh and Stephanie Peacock] were all set but votes stopped us alas! Instead we had a kickabout and a photo in the chamber!”

John Bercow, the speaker of the House of Commons, responded in a statement.

He told MPs: “It has been brought to my attention that some football skills were displayed in the chamber yesterday evening after the House rose.

“I am informed that the doorkeepers on duty told the members concerned that the chamber was not the place for this activity, however, those doorkeepers were advised that permission had been given.

“Let me assure the House that that permission certainly did not come from me.”