Gregory James Pope (born 29 August 1960) is aBritish Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) forHyndburn from1992, until retiring at the general election of2010. He was a governmentwhip from 1997 until 2001.

Pope was born and raised in Great Harwood, the only son of Sam and Sheila Pope. He went to St Marys College R.C. Grammar School onShear Brow inBlackburn, nowSt Mary's Sixth Form College, Blackburn. He studied Politics at theUniversity of Hull, graduating in 1981.

Pope was elected to serve onHyndburn Borough Council in 1984 until 1988, and he also served briefly onBlackburn Borough Council from 1989 to 1990.

Pope unsuccessfully foughtRibble Valley at the election of1987, placing third, before gaining Hyndburn from theConservativeKen Hargreaves in April 1992. Considered aBlairite,^[1] Pope is a signatory of theHenry Jackson Society. He was a member of the backbench committee on Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2001.

In April 2000, as a whip, Pope inadvertently approved a Liberal Democrat clause in the government's utilities bill, committing the government to meet 10% of electricity requirements from green sources by 2010. Pope said: “We were doing a series of government amendments. I realised I'd shouted aye too many times. I'm not overjoyed about it.” The error led the government to instruct its MPs to vote against the clause.^[2]

In July 2003, Pope admitted leaking confidentialForeign Affairs Select Committee evidence, toThe Guardian chief political correspondentPatrick Wintour. The move was described^{[by whom?]} as an attempt to “bounce” MPs on the committee into clearingAlastair Campbell of “sexing up” the so calledDodgy Dossier. This was of evidence into the threat, posed by Iraqi leaderSaddam Hussein.^{[citation needed]}

On 11 June 2009, Pope announced that he would stand down at the2010 Election.^[3] In November 2009,Graham Jones, who later became his successor, was chosen as an candidate to succeed him byLabour.^[4] In April 2010, he revealed he nearly didn't stand in2005. However, quite a few of his friends and family talked to him and persuaded him to have one more term, which he did have.^[5]

In December 2009, Greg Pope claimed £21,613 in expenses in a single year (2008–2009) and £7,295 of Additional Cost Allowance, which included household furnishings and mortgage payments. This was over a two-year period.^[6][7][8]

On 19 April 2010, Pope was appointed as the deputy director of theCatholic Education Service (CES).^[9] In March 2017, he left the CES to become the Assistant General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England & Wales; in October 2019 he became its Executive Director, and in November 2024 its General Secretary.

He married Catherine Fallon on 2 August 1985; they have three children. Catherine, known as Kate, is the General Secretary of the Association of Educational Psychologists, a registered trade union representing educational psychologists working in the United Kingdom.^[10] Their son, Conor, was previously deputy editor of pressure group byNew Labour,Progress.^[11]

• Official Website
• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Greg Pope
• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Greg Pope MP
• His experience at HullArchived 3 March 2007 at theWayback Machine
• TheyWorkForYou.com – Greg Pope MP
• BBC Politics pageArchived 20 August 2007 at theWayback Machine