Damien Egan was elected as the Labour MP for Kingswood in a February 2024 by-election. He gained the seat for Labour with a majority of 2,501.
In 2019 Kingswood had returned the Conservative MP, Chris Skidmore with a majority of 11,220. In late 2023, Mr Skidmore resigned his seat at Westminster following disagreements with the Conservative government around their policies towards climate change.
The Kingswood constituency is found immediately to the west of Bristol. It covers the eastern suburbs of Bristol itself, alongside the town of Kingswood some four miles outside of Bristol, and a small number of surrounding commuter villages.    This is an economically active area in which unemployment is low and home ownership is high.
Kingswood is one of the UKs most long standing marginal seats having been held by Labour between 1974 and 1979, the Conservatives between 1979 and 1992, Labour between 1992 and 2010, and the Conservatives since 2010.
Before being elected to Westminster, Damien Egan served as the Mayor of Lewisham between 2019 and 2024. He was first elected as a councillor on Lewisham Council in 2010, serving as the cabinet member for housing between 2014 and 2017.
Egan was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1983. He grew up in Bristol, and once became a parish councillor in Downend and Staple Hill in Bristol at the age of 21.
Egan contested Weston-Super-Mare for the Labour Party in 2005 general election, and Beckenham in the 2010 general election.
He was raised a Catholic but later converted to Judaism, the religion of his husband.
Twitter – @damienegan
