Steve Yemm is the Labour MP for Mansfield, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Yemm won 16,048 votes, representing 39.1% of the vote. The Conservative candidate, Ben Bradley, received 12,563 votes (30.6%), while the Reform UK candidate, Matthew Warnes, secured 9,385 votes (22.8%). Yemm was duly elected with a majority of 3,485.

The Mansfield constituency is located in Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands. The seat was held by Ben Bradley of the Conservative Party from 2017 to 2024, and before that by Labour from 1923 to 2017.

Political Career

In May 2026, Yemm 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.”

Yemm was appointed as a government “business champion” for biotechnology in the East Midlands – a role established in February 2025 to facilitate engagement between the Labour administration and the private sector. The position was part of a network of approximately 40 MPs appointed by the Department for Business and Trade to act as conduits for industry views on government policy. The grouping operated under the oversight of Dan Tomlinson, the national “mission champion” for growth.

The selection of champions was designed to leverage the professional expertise of the 2024 intake of MPs, and the role was seen as an early step on the Westminster ladder. However, the scheme was reportedly scrapped in July 2025 following a meeting at 10 Downing Street. According to a Guido Fawkes report, the business champions were told that their services were no longer required.

Yemm is listed as a member of the all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs) for cancer in children and young people and women’s rights.

Yemm delivered his maiden speech on 10 October 2024 during a debate on Team GB and ParalympicsGB.

In it, he said: “I am the first MP for Mansfield to be born in the constituency and elected as a new member since Bernard Taylor in 1941, and indeed my family has a great deal in common with Bernard.

“In 1926, my grandfather was locked out of the Cwmtillery colliery, in the south Wales coalfield, and had to walk for 10 days from south Wales to Nottinghamshire with his wife and young son in search of work, settling first in Kirkby-in-Ashfield and then in Blidworth. He worked with his three sons, including my father, as coalface workers at the Blidworth colliery.”

He added: “I bring to parliament 30 years of international private sector business experience as a senior commercial leader and general manager in life sciences and technology, including as a chief executive officer of a US corporation and managing director of an Israel-based technology company.”

Yemm previously stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate in the 2011 Mansfield mayoral election, narrowly losing by 67 votes on second preferences.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Yemm 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

Red Wall Caucus: Yemm is a member of the Labour Red Wall Caucus, a parliamentary pressure group of Labour MPs representing constituencies in the Midlands and Northern England. Formed in November 2024 and led by Bassetlaw MP Jo White, the caucus serves as a voice for the so-called “red wall” seats that returned to Labour en masse at the 2024 general election.

In May 2025, following a series of disappointing local election results for the Labour Party, the caucus issued a statement calling for a shift in government strategy. The group argued that Keir Starmer’s “plan for change” messaging had “fallen on deaf ears”, inviting ministers to “visit our areas, listen and rebuild the social contract between government and the people.”

The statement added: “The demands raised by new MPs from post-industrial towns where infrastructure is poor with years of underinvestment must be taken off the too-difficult-to-do list.

“Breakaway from Treasury orthodoxy otherwise we will never get the investment we desperately need. The government needs to it improve messaging by telling our story and articulating our values in the language that resonates and is heard.”

In a subsequent letter to Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, on 27 August 2025, the MPs said they were elected “with commitments to destroy the criminal smuggling gang networks, ensure that our border is secure… and to quickly remove those who have no entitlement to be here.”

They went on to critique Farage’s deportations plan.

The MPs added: “We believe that migrants who pose a threat to public safety should be tagged, and that we should expand right-to-work checks to crack down on illegal working. We believe sex offenders should never get asylum in the UK. We believe that the criminal people smuggling gangs should be treated like terrorists.”

Get Britain Working Group: Yemm has been listed as a member of the Get Britain Working Group of Labour MPs – a caucus supportive of the Starmer leadership’s position on welfare. The group argues for a “new social contract built on employment and opportunity”, focusing on the rising number of people out of the workforce due to long-term sickness.

In an open letter, issued upon the group’s founding in March 2025, the group expressed its support for the government’s welfare measures set out in the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill. The bill was subject to a significant revolt of over 120 Labour MPs – which forced ministers into a series of concessions shortly before its first vote in the House of Commons.

Ahead of the bill’s fraught second reading debate, the MPs wrote: “Our Labour values are built on a simple but powerful idea: that every individual, regardless of background or circumstance, should have the support they need to make the most of their lives.”

Labour Growth Group: Yemm has been listed as a member of the Labour Growth Group (LGG) – a vocal faction of backbenchers committed to ensuring economic growth remains the central mission of the government. The group, largely composed of MPs from the 2024 intake, positions itself as the voice of “the builders, not the blockers” and provides organised support for ministers taking on politically difficult decisions in the name of economic expansion.

In an open letter addressed to Keir Starmer, issued upon the group’s founding in July 2024, LGG MPs said it was imperative that “the government grasps the nettle and goes for growth”.

They added: “This absolutely has to start with the sweeping planning reforms to get Britain building again. Under the Tories, planning permissions for new homes hit record lows and housebuilding cratered. Indeed, not once in their 14 years in power did the Conservatives meet their housing targets.”

Brexit and Europe

Fair elections APPG: Yemm is listed as a supporter of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for fair elections – a cross-party group of MPs and peers that campaigns for electoral reform. The group’s stated aims include replacing the first past the post (FPTP) voting system with a form of proportional representation, eliminating “dark money” and “undemocratic influence” from politics, and countering disinformation.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Yemm 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

Yemm voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Yemm 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.

Before Politics

Yemm was born in January 1964 in Rainworth, a Nottinghamshire village near Mansfield. He attended Brunts School in Mansfield.

Yemm studied applied chemistry at Nottingham Trent University, graduating in 1985.

Yemm’s career before entering frontline politics centred on roles in the life sciences and technology sectors. His career began as a chemist in the pharmaceutical industry. He later held senior commercial leadership and general management roles.

Before entering parliament, Yemm was chief commercial officer at Optibrium.

Personal Life

Yemm is married.

Trivia

Yemm is a member of the Red Wall Caucus.