Jonathan Hinder | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of Parliament forPendle and Clitheroe | |
| Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Andrew Stephenson[a] |
| Majority | 902 (1.9%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jonathan James Hinder (1991-03-03)3 March 1991 (age 34) |
| Party | Labour |
| Other political affiliations | |
| Education | Clitheroe Royal Grammar School |
| Alma mater | Merton College, Oxford (BA) |
| Occupation |
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| Website | www |
Jonathan James Hinder (born 3 March 1991) is a British politician and former police officer who has served as themember of Parliament (MP) forPendle and Clitheroe since 2024. A member of theLabour Party, he is a member of theRed Wall Caucus and a co-founder and leading member of theBlue Labour parliamentary caucus.
Hinder grew up inDownham. He attendedClitheroe Royal Grammar School andMerton College, Oxford before serving in the police force from 2013 to 2022 inLondon.
In 2022, Hinder left the police force to pursue a career in politics. He joined the Labour Party and in the2024 general election became the Labour MP for Pendle and Clitheroe after defeating the incumbentConservative MPAndrew Stephenson. In Parliament, Hinder has campaigned for greater investment into transport and policing. He has called for the Labour Party to abandonliberalism and return to its traditionalleft-wing,socialist roots with a stricter policy on immigration to reconnect with its main working-class base.
Jonathan James Hinder[1] was born on 3 March 1991.[2][3] His father, David Hinder, is aLabour Party activist inRibble Valley.[3][4] He grew up inDownham and attendedClitheroe Royal Grammar School before he went up to study history and politics atMerton College, Oxford, where he served asJCR President.[3][5]
After graduating, Hinder joined the police force inLondon in 2013. He mainly worked in emergency response roles.[3][6] He also served as the head of thePolice Now training academy during this period.[7][8]
In 2022, Hinder left the police service to pursue a career in politics.[3][6] He joined theLabour Party and wrote forLabourList and theFabian Society on crime and policing.[9][10] In the2023 Ribble Valley Borough Council election, he stood as a Labour candidate for the ward ofSt Mary's where he lost to twoLiberal Democrat candidates.[11][12]
In November 2023, Hinder was selected in a ballot of local Labour members to stand as Labour'sprospective parliamentary candidate for thePendle and Clitheroe constituency at the2024 general election.[13][14] During the election campaign, Hinder criticised the governingConservative Party for a decline in public services and promoted Labour's proposedNational Care Service, green energy generation and career opportunities for young people.[15] He built support on the campaign trail by holding open forums with local residents where they could ask him questions and share their concerns.[16][17]
At the general election on 4 July, he was elected as the newmember of Parliament (MP) for Pendle and Clitheroe with 16,129 votes, a majority of 902, or 1.9%, over the incumbent Conservative MPAndrew Stephenson.[18][19] Hinder became the first Labour politician to win the Clitheroe area since the1945 general election.[20] After his victory, Hinder paid tribute to Stephenson and pledged to "work to improve the lives of every single constituent, whether they voted for me or not".[18] He wassworn into Parliament on 10 July and made hismaiden speech during a debate onrailway nationalisation on 7 September 2024.[21][22]
In his maiden speech, Hinder called for the restoration of theSkipton–Colne Line and "serious investment in infrastructure […] if we are to see small towns in the north of England thrive and prosper".[22] He joined theRed Wall Caucus of Labour MPs from seats in theMidlands and theNorth of England which calls for greater economic investment by the government into that region.[23] In September 2024, he said he would prioritise thecost-of-living crisis,green investment, improving public transport and improving the NHS and other public services as an MP.[3] He also set up a constituency office inColne.[3]
After his election to Parliament, Hinder voted in favour of the government's planned cuts to thewinter fuel payment in September 2024.[24] In November 2024, he voted in favour ofKim Leadbeater'sAssisted Dying Bill at its firstreading, explaining that he believed the bill was "sufficiently limited in scope to reduce unnecessary suffering for those who wish to shorten a painful death, without causing undue suffering to others".[25] However, he withdrew his support for the bill at its second reading in May 2025 after a provision requiring approval from theHigh Court for assisted dying was removed, stating that more modifications had to be made to the bill to once again make it "practicable and safe".[26]
In January 2025, Hinder co-founded the parliamentary caucus of the economically left-wing and socially conservativeBlue Labour movement withDan Carden,David Smith andJonathan Brash.[27] Hinder has become a leading figure in the caucus and is responsible for booking the venues of its meetings in Parliament.[28][29] In February, he said the Labour Party had to "reconnect with our working-class base in seats like mine of Pendle and Clitheroe" by pursuing "bold, left-wing economic policies, much lower immigration, a complete rejection of divisive identity politics, and proudly reclaiming our patriotism".[29] After Labour's poor showing in the2025 local elections, Hinder said the party had to abandonliberalism and return to its traditional left-wing, socialist roots with a stricter policy on immigration to reconnect with its main working-class base who had appeared to shift towardsReform UK over high immigration.[30][31]
In July 2025, following the Supreme Court decision ofFor Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers, he called fortrans women to be excluded fromParkrun, a non-competitivefun run event.[32] The following month, he branded former Conservative minister and current Reform UK memberAnn Widdecombe as "woke right" after she asked Conservative leaderKemi Badenoch to clarify her party's position on placing transgender inmates in prisons by gender.[33]
Ideologically, Hinder is a leading member of the Blue Labour parliamentary caucus of economically left-wing and socially conservative Labour MPs.[34] He has criticised what he sees as the "hyper-liberal" ideology of the Labour Party and in 2025 said the party faced an "existential threat" because it abandoned its traditional left-wing socialist platform for liberalism and pro-immigration policies, after the party's traditional working-class voting base appeared to shift towardsReform UK over high immigration.[35][31] Hinder promotes "left-wing economic arguments for low, controlled immigration" as described in 2025; according to Hinder, "high immigration is, of course, thecapitalist dream" where "working-class people are generally the losers", with high immigration leading to theexploitation of British workers with increasing inequality anddepressed wages caused by an influx of low-paidmigrant workers.[35][34][36] He has argued that by adopting a stricter policy on immigration and moving back to the left, Labour would remove the appeal of challengers like Reform UK and reconnect the party to its traditional working-class base.[30][31]
The Labour Party under Keir Starmer has moved in a distinctly Blue Labour direction since 2019, and the Prime Minister has my full support. But we now need to go much further to reconnect with our working-class base in seats like mine of Pendle and Clitheroe, and hundreds like it across the country. That means bold, left-wing economic policies, much lower immigration, a complete rejection of divisive identity politics, and proudly reclaiming our patriotism.
— Jonathan Hinder in February 2025.[29]
In May 2025, Hinder called for an effective freeze on immigration with the introduction of a "one in, one out" system of migration.[31][37] He also called for the government to implement an annual cap on acceptingrefugees and to reform theasylum system to remove "every legal obstacle" preventing the removal of illegal boatscrossing the English channel, including withdrawal from theEuropean Convention of Human Rights if necessary.[35][38] In April 2025, he said there needed to be a deterrent againstillegal immigration, but criticised theRwanda asylum plan as "chaotic".[39] He also criticised the high numbers ofinternational students at British universities and said that he was "not that disappointed" if reducing international student numbers would lead to the bankruptcy of universities which depended on international fees, adding that the nation should not have "anywhere near as many universities" which he described as "popping out degrees of dubious quality, of dubious value to the economy".[39][40] He has supported the Labour government'splanned reforms to reduce immigration and the government's review of human rights legislation related toillegal immigration.[41][36]
On the economy and the state, Hinder has regularly criticisedfree market andThatcherite economics, attributing "an unshakeable faith in free market Capitalism" for the economic ills of his constituency, particularly the decline ofmanufacturing andthe textile industry.[42] Hinder has criticised the "Treasury Orthodoxy" and a lack of intervention from the government.[43][44] In 2025, he said the government had "given away much of its decision-making power" to unelectedquangos such asNHS England, theBank of England and theOffice of Budget Responsibility, which he criticised for causing a lack of democratic accountability on economic policy.[45][44] He has criticisedNew Labour's decision in 1997 to grant the Bank of England independent decision-making powers overinterest rates for this reason and has called on elected politicians to "take back control" over policy-making and public services.[44][46] He has criticised theprivatisation of public services and industriessince the 1980s, including water, steel, rail, mail and energy, to private firms, "[m]any of them based overseas. Their priority purely being profit".[47] Hinder has credited privatisation with rising bills, failing services and a decline in public infrastructure, and believes that the government shouldnationalise key industries and services and bring them back intopublic ownership.[47]
Since his election to Parliament, Hinder has campaigned for greater investment into transport and policing services and the restoration of theSkipton–Colne Line in particular.[22][48][49][50] He dedicated hismaiden speech to this issue, explaining that the nation needed "serious investment in infrastructure, such as by reinstating the short rail link between Colne inLancashire and Skipton inNorth Yorkshire, if we are to see small towns in the north of England thrive and prosper".[22] In 2025, he said investment into transport services was needed to "unlock the potential of our towns" and said a new Skipton–Colne Line would be a "game changer […] that would dramatically improve economic prospects for deprived areas across East Lancashire, well beyond my constituency".[48]
In April 2025, Hinder stated that he would not be disappointed if universities went bust due to a reduction in net migration, stating that he was "happy to be bold and say, ‘I don’t think we should have anywhere near as many universities and university places'",[51] and that he would not be disappointed, during a speech with conservative[52] group Civic Future.[51]
In October 2025, speaking at an event for group More In Common, he responded to Keir Starmer's labelling of Reform UK's proposals for legal migrants to reapply as racist and immoral, defending Keir Starmers views[53] but also cautioned against branding Reform UK policies as racist.[53] He stated “I think we’ve got to be very careful, because people who don’t pay attention to politics – and that’s, let’s be honest, most voters – can easily misinterpret what we say."[53]
In December 2025, Hinder commented on theKing's College London Pathways Trial which dealt with the subject ofgender dysphoria, a randomised controlled trial to explore the effects of puberty suppressing hormones among young people with gender dysphoria (incongruence),[54] stating that it was "dangerous gender madness" and a "drug experiment" stating that "will put them on the path to sterilisation, lack of sexual function, and needing medical treatment for life".[55]
Hinder lives inClitheroe.[56][3] He is a fan of football and cricket.[3]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forPendle and Clitheroe 2024–present | Incumbent |