Darren Jones | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2025 | |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| Assumed office 5 September 2025 | |
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Pat McFadden |
| Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister | |
| Assumed office 1 September 2025 | |
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Minister for Intergovernmental Relations | |
| Assumed office 6 September 2025 | |
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Pat McFadden |
| Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 5 July 2024 – 1 September 2025 | |
| Prime Minister | Keir Starmer |
| Preceded by | Laura Trott |
| Succeeded by | James Murray |
| Chair of theBusiness and Trade Select Committee[a] | |
| In office 6 May 2020 – 4 September 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Rachel Reeves |
| Succeeded by | Liam Byrne |
| Member of Parliament forBristol North West | |
| Assumed office 8 June 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Charlotte Leslie |
| Majority | 15,669 (32.3%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Darren Paul Jones (1986-11-13)13 November 1986 (age 39) Bristol, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | Lucy Symons-Jones |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | University of Plymouth (BSc) University of the West of England (GDL) University of Law (LPC) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Official website |
Jones on howartificial intelligence can promote economic growth Recorded 7 July 2023 | |
Darren Paul Jones (born 13 November 1986)[1] is a British politician who has served asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister andMinister for Intergovernmental Relations since September 2025, having previously served asChief Secretary to the Treasury from July 2024 to September 2025[2] andShadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from September 2023 to July 2024.[3] A member of theLabour Party, he has beenMember of Parliament forBristol North West since2017. He chaired theHouse of CommonsBusiness and Trade Select Committee from 2020 to 2023.
Darren Jones was born on 13 November 1986 inBristol, and grew up inLawrence Weston. He attended Portway Community School inShirehampton, a state comprehensive, and has spoken about his experiences of growing up in poverty.[4]
Jones studied human bioscience at theUniversity of Plymouth, where he was elected President of theStudents' Union. He worked in theNational Health Service and served on the boards of theUniversity of Plymouth and thePlymouth NHS Trust, and had a weekly newspaper column in thePlymouth Herald. He later read law at theUniversity of the West of England and theUniversity of Law in Bristol before being admitted as asolicitor.[1][5]
Jones initially worked atWomble Bond Dickinson LLP, before becoming an in-house counsel withBT, advising on data privacy, cyber-security, telecommunications and consumer law.[6] In Bristol, he started a mentoring programme seeking to bring young people from his old school into the legal profession. Following the Brexit referendum in 2016, he sat on the board of UK Legal Futures, which brought together leading lawyers to advise politicians and civil servants on legal questions raised byBrexit.[7]
Jones stood as theLabour candidate inTorridge and West Devon at the2010 general election, coming fourth with 5.3% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MPGeoffrey Cox, theLiberal Democrat candidate, and theUKIP candidate.[8][9][10] Jones later sat on the national youth committees of theCo-operative Party andUnite the Union and was elected to Unite's Regional Political Committee in the South West.[11]
At the2015 general election, Jones stood inBristol North West, coming second with 34.4% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MPCharlotte Leslie.[12] Following the 2015 election, Jones joined the campaign ofLabour leadership hopefulAndy Burnham as its South West Co-ordinator, and chairedMarvin Rees's successful campaign to becomeMayor of Bristol.
In 2016 he joined theRemain campaign in theEU membership referendum and chaired the Young Lawyers' Network, a nationwide group campaigning for a vote to remain in theEuropean Union in the2016 referendum.[13] Later in 2016, he went to the United States to work for theClinton campaign inMiami during that year'sUS Presidential election.[14]
Jones was also the chair of Labour Digital, a Labour think tank.[15]
At the2017 general election, Jones was elected the Member of Parliament forBristol North West, overturning a Conservative majority of 4,944 on a 9.2 percent swing.[16] In hismaiden speech, Jones noted that he was the first Darren ever elected to Parliament.[17]
Between 2017 and 2020, Jones was a member of the cross-partyScience and Technology Committee and theEuropean Scrutiny Committee.
In 2019, thenDeputy Leader of the Labour Party,Tom Watson, appointed Jones as the Convenor of theFuture Britain Group, which was established following a number of defections from theLabour Party in a bid to prevent further defections.[18]
Jones was re-elected at the2019 general election, with an increased majority of 5,692 but a decreased vote share of 48.9%.[19]
FollowingKeir Starmer'selection as Labour leader in April 2020, Jones was appointedParliamentary Private Secretary jointly toShadow Justice SecretaryDavid Lammy andShadow Attorney GeneralCharlie Falconer,[20] and served until his election as Chair of theHouse of CommonsBusiness, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.
Jones built a national profile as Chair of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, winning a number of awards[21][22] and attracting millions of views of his committee hearings on social media.[23]
He led on a number of issues including the withholding of redundancy payments fromAstraZeneca workers,[24] the campaign to increase miners' pensions through the Mineworkers Pension Scheme,[25] and theBritish Post Office scandal,[26] the right for workers to join a trade union atAmazon[27] and the dispute related to changes atRoyal Mail.[28][29] In 2020, he introduced the UK's firstcitizens' assembly onnet zero to Parliament.[30] He has also led Parliamentary inquiries into the decarbonisation of heating,[31] electricity[32][33] and industry,[34] as well as reform of the energy market in the United Kingdom.[35]
Jones also sat on theNational Security Strategy Joint Committee and, following the introduction of theNational Security and Investment Act 2021, became responsible as Chair of theBusiness, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee for holding the Government to account for its use of national security powers.[36] He has also served on theLiaison Committee, the committee that scrutinises the Prime Minister. As a member of that committee, Jones had frequent notable exchanges with then-Prime MinisterBoris Johnson,[37][38][39] including during the final days prior to Johnson announcing his resignation in July 2022 when Jones informed him that his cabinet was waiting for him in10 Downing Street to tell him to resign.[40]
Jones was the founder and chair of the Interparliamentary Forum on Emerging Technologies, a global network of legislators interested in emerging technology regulation, and in 2021 was appointed to theOnline Safety Billpre-legislative scrutiny committee.[41][42] In 2021, he passed the Forensic Science Regulator Act 2021, having been successful in the ballot for aPrivate Members Bill, giving theforensic science regulator statutory powers to ensure service quality standards from the privatised forensic science companies working with thepolice.[43][44]
In 2022, Jones was appointed as a member of theUK-EU Parliamentary Partnership Assembly.[45]
In the2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, he joined the shadow cabinet asShadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.[46] He has been described as one of the Labour Party's strongest communicators and became one of the most recognisable faces of the shadow cabinet during the 2024 general election campaign.[47][48]
At the2024 general election, Jones was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 49.6% and an increased majority of 15,669; representing the largest majority ever recorded inBristol North West.[49]
Jones was appointedChief Secretary to the Treasury[50] and attends Cabinet. As deputy to the Chancellor, he is responsible for public spending,[51] delivering the government's ten year national infrastructure strategy[52] and leading for HM Treasury on the digital transformation of public services. Since April 2025, he has also been responsible for theNational Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA).[53][54]
Jones apologised for comments he made after theMarch 2025 United Kingdom spring statement, where he used the example ofpocket money when talking about cuts toPersonal Independence Payments for disabled people. The Chancellor of the ExchequerRachel Reeves had said it was "not the right analogy" when asked about the comment in an interview.[55][56]
On the BBC'sQuestion Time on 12 June 2025, Jones said ofEnglish Channel migrant crossings "And when you see that the majority of the people in these boats are children, babies and women… you have got to take note". Jones rejected fellow panellistZia Yusuf's statement that 90% of cross-Channel migrants were men. In 2024, 76% of migrants were adult men, while in the first three months of 2025 it was 81% adult men, with children being four-fifths male. Conservative leaderKemi Badenoch called for Jones to retract his statement and apologise. The following day, Jones said that the majority of migrants were men, and that his statement about women and children being the majority referred to one visit he had made toBorder Security Command.[57][58]
In a cabinet reshuffle on 1 September 2025, Jones was appointed asChief Secretary to the Prime Minister and was succeeded byJames Murray as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.[59] He was also appointed asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 5 September,[60] afterPat McFadden succeededLiz Kendall asSecretary of State for Work and Pensions.[61]
Politico Europe has described Jones as being on theLabour right,[62] and he has describedTony Blair as one of his political heroes.[63]
He has been noted as a prominent voice in debates on technology policy in Parliament,[64] and has described himself as atechno-optimist.[65] He supported Remain in the2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.[13] He has supported electoral reform to a proportional system.[66] He has opposed ending UK arms sales to Israel during theGaza war, saying that it would not end the war, though understood why people would call for it "in the circumstances".[67] In 2025 Jones said the era of globalisation "ended" followingDonald Trump's tariffs.[68]
Jones told his constituents in November 2024 that he would not support the assisted dying legislation being brought to Parliament by his Labour colleagueKim Leadbeater.[69]
Jones is married to Australian net zero consultant and technology entrepreneur Lucy Symons-Jones, who co-founded the renewable energy company Village Infrastructure in 2011. Due to financial troubles, Symons-Jones left the business in 2014.[70] They have three daughters.[1] Jones became avegan in 2014, for reasons related to carbon emissions and agriculture, although he is sometimesvegetarian.[71]
Jones was sworn of thePrivy Council on 10 July 2024.[72]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)By contrast Pat McFadden, Liz Kendall and Peter Kyle — three high-profile MPs on the right who worked as government aides during the Blair era — were given big promotions. Darren Jones, who is on the same wing of the party, and Hilary Benn, a Cabinet minister under Blair, were also appointed to Starmer's top team.
DJ: 'I would quite like to change the voting system and have a more proportional system', the Bristol North West, MP rounds off, expressing his hopes for positive change.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBristol North West 2017–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury 2023–2024 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief Secretary to the Treasury 2024–2025 | Succeeded by |
| New title | Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister 2025–present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 2025–present | Incumbent |
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