Hello, I’m Kerry McCarthy,

After being re-elected at the 2024 General Election, I’m delighted to be able to continue serving the constituents of Bristol East as their Labour MP. I was first elected in 2005, and – having been re-elected in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019, and now 2024 – I am the longest-serving of Bristol’s current MPs by some distance. Soon after the election I was appointed Minister for Climate in the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, a role which covers international climate and international energy issues, as well as making sure the UK meets its domestic net zero targets.

I grew up in Luton, one of six children, attending a local comprehensive school and the sixth form college. Before I became an MP I worked mostly in the legal profession – I studied Russian, Politics and Linguistics at University and then went to law college and qualified as a solicitor – and on political campaigns. I was also an elected councillor for five years.

I’m well-known for being a vegan and for being the first MP to make a speech about it in the House of Commons. It will be 34 years on January 1st 2025: a rare example of making a New Year’s Resolution and sticking to it! I’ve spoken frequently in Parliament about the links between our food system and the environment, and I’m pleased that these arguments – for which I was once roundly ridiculed – are now gaining common currency.

I’m a member of the Musicians Union – although I’m not a musician – and a patron of the Music Venue Trust. I also belong to SERA (Labour’s Environment Campaign), LAWS (Labour Animal Welfare Society) and the Co-op Party, and support organisations like Greenpeace, the Wildlife Trusts and Compassion in World Farming. Most recently I’ve helped set up LCEF, the Labour Climate and Environment Forum. I am also a member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East (LFPME) which supports the implementation of international law and respect for human rights in the Middle East.

Previous parliamentary work 

I’ve held a number of other frontbench posts during my time in Parliament. During the last Labour Government, I served as PPS to Douglas Alexander in the Department for International Development, and then became a Government Whip. When Labour went into Opposition in 2010 I became a shadow Treasury Minister, before spending four years in the shadow Foreign Affairs team, where I had, inter alia, the human rights and climate change briefs. After the 2015 election I was appointed Shadow Environment Secretary, but resigned from this position after the Brexit referendum so I could be free to take a more independent stance on our future relationship with the EU. After the 2019 General Election I went on to hold the shadow ministerial brief for Green Transport, and then Climate Change. I’m very pleased to now get a chance to do the job in Government!

I’ve also served on a number of Select Committees. When I was first elected in 2005 I spent a couple of years on the Treasury Select Committee, reflecting my past experience working as a lawyer in the City, and in the 2015-19 Parliament I was Vice Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee and a member of the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs Select Committee.

I’ve played an active role in quite a few All-Party Parliamentary Groups, including country groups for Tibet, Russia, Jordan and Somaliland, and the APPGs on Music and Snooker (the latter partly because of Bristol’s historic connection with the sport but also because I do actually watch it!)

Over the years I’ve introduced a number of backbench bills – including my Supported Housing (Regulation) Bill, which led to the Government publishing a statement of national expectations, and setting up pilot schemes to investigate the scale of the problem in the supported housing sector and whether regulation was needed. It became clear this was a serious problem, and eventually the Government did decide to legislate.

I’ve also introduced two Food Waste Bills and set up/chaired a Food Waste APPG to campaign for the issue to be given greater priority in Government policy, which is now happening. I’ve been an officer of the APPG on School Food, and helped set up Feeding Bristol, which has done so much to alleviate food poverty in our city.

Another Bill I brought forward was the Kinship Care Bill, to highlight the contributions and sacrifices made by people who have taken on the children of family members or friends who are unable to look after them anymore. More recently I served on the Parliamentary Taskforce on Kinship Care.

My final backbench bill, the Children (Parental Imprisonment) Bill, came just before the 2024 General Election. I’ve been working with the child-focused parental imprisonment support charity, Children Heard and Seen, for some years. I was awarded the 2023 Labour MP of the Year award from the Patchwork Foundation because of my work calling for children who’ve had a parent sent to jail to get the support they need. Given that my Bill was only presented in Parliament the day before the General Election was called, I was very happy to see it make it into the Labour Manifesto at the very last minute.