Richard Burgon | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Shadow Secretary of State for Justice Shadow Lord Chancellor | |
| In office 27 June 2016 – 6 April 2020 | |
| Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
| Preceded by | The Lord Falconer of Thoroton |
| Succeeded by | David Lammy |
| Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 16 September 2015 – 27 June 2016 | |
| Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
| Preceded by | Cathy Jamieson |
| Succeeded by | Jonathan Reynolds |
| Member of Parliament forLeeds East | |
| Assumed office 7 May 2015[1] | |
| Preceded by | George Mudie |
| Majority | 11,265 (38.6%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1980-09-19)19 September 1980 (age 45) Leeds, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Other political affiliations |
|
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
| Website | Official website |
Richard Burgon (born 19 September 1980) is a British politician who has been theMember of Parliament (MP) forLeeds East since2015. A member of theLabour Party, Burgon served asShadow Secretary of State for Justice andShadow Lord Chancellor in theCorbyn shadow cabinet from 2016 to 2020.
Burgon readEnglish Literature atSt John's College, Cambridge, where he was chairman of theCambridge University Labour Club. After working as an employment lawyer, he was elected as the MP for Leeds East at the2015 general election.
Burgon was appointed asShadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury (City Minister) in September 2015 by new Labour leaderJeremy Corbyn. Burgon was promoted toShadow Secretary of State for Justice in June 2016 following theorganised mass resignations in protest against the leadership of Corbyn. He was a candidate in the2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election. He was dismissed from theShadow Cabinet in April 2020 afterKeir Starmer became Labour Leader.
As of March 2021, he was Vice President of Labour CND, a group open to all Labour Party members who are also members of theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[2]
Burgon was brought up in Leeds and has distant Irish ancestry.[3] He was educated atCardinal Heenan Roman Catholic High School in Leeds.[4] He moved toSt Aidan's and St John Fisher Associated Sixth Form in Harrogate[5] to complete his A Levels. He was the first person in his immediate family to go to university,[4] studyingEnglish Literature atSt John's College, Cambridge. He was chair ofCambridge University Labour Club.[6]
Burgon has said that growing up hearing about the1984–1985 miners' strike initiated his interest in politics.[4] His aunt was a member ofWomen Against Pit Closures[4] and was married to a striking miner.[7] He is the nephew of the former Labour MPColin Burgon.[6]Tony Benn described meeting Burgon in July 1999 in his diary, describing him as "a good socialist, [who] had written a thesis on 'Tony Benn's influence on the Labour Party'." Benn also noted that Burgon wore a "specially made" T-shirt which said "Socialism is the Flame of Anger and the Flame of Hope".[8]
Burgon attended the15 February 2003 anti-war protests againstGeorge W. Bush andTony Blair's plannedinvasion of Iraq.[9][10]
Burgon qualified as asolicitor in 2006,[11] specialising in employment law for 10 years in the Employment Rights Unit atThompsons Solicitors in Leeds.[12] Burgon has described how, as a solicitor, he "represented members from a wide range of trade unions inEmployment Tribunal cases relating to, for example, unfair dismissal, detriment on trade union grounds, disability discrimination, sex discrimination, discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, unlawful deduction of wages andTUPE."[12]
In2004, Burgon first contested a public election as one of theLabour Party candidates for theWetherby ward ofLeeds City Council.[13] On previous boundaries, the ward's majorities suggested asafe seat for theConservative Party, and Burgon was unsuccessful in being elected.[14]
Burgon stood for selection as the Labourprospective parliamentary candidate for the2011 Barnsley Central by-election, coming second toDan Jarvis after tying in the penultimate round of voting. Two pieces of paper were put in a hat, and Jarvis won the nomination.[15] He also applied to be selected as the candidate for the2012 Rotherham by-election, but was not shortlisted.[16][17] Prior to the2015 general election, Burgon defeated local councillorJudith Cummins to be successfully selected by theLeeds EastConstituency Labour Party to replaceGeorge Mudie.[18]
Burgon was elected as MP forLeeds East at the2015 general election, increasing the Labour Party's majority in the seat from 10,293 to 12,533 votes.[19][20]
He was described byThe Observer as one of "the stars of the [2015] intake".[21] Standing on the floor of theHouse of Commons in May 2015, he prefaced his mandatoryoath of allegiance toElizabeth II by expressing his support for constitutional change for an electedhead of state: "As someone that believes that the head of state should be elected I make this oath in order to serve my constituents".[22]
Following the resignation ofEd Miliband asLabour leader, Burgon was one of 10 newly elected Labour MPs who wrote an open letter calling for "a new leader who looks forward and will challenge an agenda of cuts, take on big business and will set out an alternative to austerity – not one which will draw back to theNew Labour creed of the past".[23] Along withJeremy Corbyn,Diane Abbott andJohn McDonnell, Burgon was one of48 Labour MPs to defy thewhip and vote against the2015 Welfare Bill,[24] explaining that he was voting "for the people of East Leeds and against Conservative attacks on welfare."[25]He was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in theLabour leadership election of 2015.[26] Following Corbyn's victory in that campaign he appointed Burgon asShadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury.[21] He nominated Corbyn again as leader during the2016 Labour leadership election.[27]
In an October 2015Channel 4 News interview, Burgon admitted that, despite having been Shadow Economic Secretary[28] to the Treasury for over a month, he was still yet to meet anyone from the city of London'sfinance andbanking industry, nor could he predict the UKbudget deficit for 2015.[29][30]
Burgon is secretary of theGMB Parliamentary Group. In this role, he ensures that issues of interest to GMB members are raised in the House of Commons.[31] Burgon is also a member of theBakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union.[32] Burgon is the Secretary of theSocialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs,[33][34] and is regarded as being on the left of the Labour Party;[6] he has taken part inPeople's Assembly Against Austerity protests.[citation needed] Burgon has called for more democracy within the Labour Party, saying: "All parties need to be made more democratic. We've got a membership of well over half a million and I would like the members to have more say in our party's policies and in the way the party's run."[35]
Burgon successfully defended his Leeds East seat at theDecember 2019 general election, winning with 19,464 votes (49.8%). His majority of the votes fell from 12,752 in2017 to 5,531.[36]
He stood in the2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election, coming third behindAngela Rayner andRosena Allin-Khan and receiving 21.3% of the vote in the final round.[37]
He was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Leeds East at the2024 General Election with an increased majority of over 11,000.[38] On July 2024 he had thewhip withdrawn and was suspended from the party for six months as a result of voting for aScottish National Party amendment to scrap thetwo child benefit cap. The whip was restored on 5 February 2025.[39]
Burgon was promoted toShadow Secretary of State for Justice andShadow Lord Chancellor on 27 June 2016 following theorganised mass resignations in protest against the leadership of Corbyn.[40]
Burgon has called for an end to privatisation in the justice system, labelling privatisation "an ideological experiment ... that has been a calamitous failure",[41] and criticising thepart-privatisation of probation by former Justice SecretaryChris Grayling as "a costly failure that has left our communities less safe."[42] AsShadow Justice Secretary Burgon has raised concerns that sustained cuts to the prison service have led to a crisis, with prisons becoming increasingly dangerous for both staff and inmates.[43] He has called for a reversal ofMinistry of Justice cuts and for emergency funding to recruit more prison officers and provide prison staff with new equipment, action to end overcrowding and for plans to build new private prisons to be scrapped.[44] AtLabour Party Conference in 2017 Burgon announced that a Labour Government would "properly supportlaw centres as engines of empowerment for working-class communities".[45]
In September 2017, the political commentatorIain Dale listed Burgon at Number 86 in 'The 100 Most Influential People on the Left'."[46]
Burgon believes cuts tolegal aid are a false economy and deny people justice, saying, "A lack of early legal advice can create unnecessary costs for the taxpayer as legal problems go to court when they could have been resolved earlier or spiral into costly social problems as people lose their homes or jobs ... legal aid cuts have deliberately weakened people's ability to challenge injustices and enforce their rights."[47] In the aftermath of theWindrush scandal, Burgon criticised Conservative cuts tolegal aid for immigration cases inParliament, saying "The Windrush scandal is one of the cruellest examples of unaccountable state power targeting the vulnerable, the defenceless and the innocent that I can ever remember".[48][49]
On 6 April 2020, upon the election ofKeir Starmer asLeader of the Labour Party, Burgon was sacked from the shadow cabinet.[50]
Burgon opposed military intervention and the bombing ofSyria following theNovember 2015 Paris attacks byISIS militants.[51] Burgon opposed theApril 2018 missile strikes against Syria.[52] At a protest against the strikes on Parliament Square, he said "The Prime Minister says that bombing of Syria was, in her words, "right and legal". I say it was wrong and immoral. It was wrong and immoral because it risks escalating a war that could involve up to a dozen countries. It was wrong because she never waited for the weapons inspectors to do their job. It was wrong because she never waited for Parliament to have its say."[53]
Burgon is a vocal critic ofDonald Trump, commenting at the Together Against Trump demo during Trump's state visit to the UK that the US President "scapegoats migrants for all society’s ills while letting the powerful off the hook."[54] He has warned against the consequences of diplomatic tensions between the US and Iran, commenting that Britain could be "dragged into a conflict" and stating that "we don't want to end up being the messengers of Donald Trump".[55]
Burgon has criticised allegedhuman rights abuses by the Israeli Government inPalestine, and visited theWest Bank in March 2016 as part of a group of Labour MPs. Of the visit, Burgon said "I was proud to visit the Occupied Territories of Palestine to show solidarity with the Palestinian people struggling for justice".[56]
On the BBC'sDaily Politics in March 2018, he was asked by presenterAndrew Neil about claims that he had said at a 2016 Labour Party meeting that "Zionism is the enemy of peace". Burgon responded, "No and that was not my view", adding "I didn't make those comments". Footage surfaced in April 2019 of Burgon speaking at an event in 2014 where he was recorded saying "The enemy of the Palestinian people is not the Jewish people. The enemy of the Palestinian people are Zionists, and Zionism is the enemy of peace and the enemy of the Palestinian people",[57] which led to accusations that he lied when he denied that this was a view he held. Burgon said that he had not recalled using what he called a "simplistic" phrase that he would not now use.[58][59]
Burgon has previously expressed support for thePSUV government inVenezuela and tweeted a congratulatory message toNicolás Maduro when he became president in 2013. On an episode ofQuestion Time in February 2019, Burgon refused to express regret for supporting Maduro following the outbreak of theVenezuelan presidential crisis.[60] He has also expressed support for theCommunist Party government inCuba and spoke at a memorial event for Cuban PresidentFidel Castro following hisdeath in 2016. During his speech, in which he praised Castro extensively, he stated that "Fidel Castro was a giant. A man of ideas. A man of action".[61]
Burgon has calledclimate change "the greatest ever market failure. It is a failure driven by capitalism's endless focus on profits whatever the cost",[62] and has expressed support for theSchool Strike for Climate.[63] He called Corbyn's speech arguing for Parliament to declare aClimate Emergency "one of the most important ever made in Parliament".[64]
In 2021, Burgon put forward aTen Minute Rule Bill that would ban arms trade withIsrael supported byCaroline Lucas,Liz Saville Roberts andTommy Sheppard.[65]
Burgon was criticised in December 2021 when he appeared onLBC for refusing to condemn thepersecution of Uyghurs in China by theChinese government, having stated that doing so would “fuelanti-Chinese racism in our society”.[66]
On 24 February 2022, following the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Burgon was one of 11 Labour MPs threatened with losing the party whip after they signed a statement by theStop the War Coalition which questioned the legitimacy ofNATO and accused the military alliance of "eastward expansion". All 11 MPs subsequently removed their signatures.[67]
In October 2023 95 MPs signedEarly Day Motion 1685: Protecting civilians in Gaza and Israel raised by Richard Burgon, which called for an immediate ceasefire in the hopes of saving the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians.
On 15 November 2023, during theIsrael - Palestine conflict, Richard Burgon MP was one of 56 Labour MPs to vote in favour of a ceasefire, as part of the SNP's amendment to the King's Speech calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. He was part of a rebellion against leaderKeir Starmer's wishes that his MPs abstain from voting for a ceasefire. Saying it was "his duty", he urged political leaders to not"delay while more innocent lives are needlessly lost. Push for a ceasefire and do it now. There is not a second to waste. Let humanity prevail." Burgon was one of three Leeds Labour MPs to vote in favour of a ceasefire, along with his colleaguesFabian Hamilton MP andAlex Sobel MP.[68][69]
On 6 February 2019, Burgon won a libel case againstThe Sun newspaper after it falsely claimed that he had performed with a music group who "delighted" in Nazi imagery.[70] TheHigh Court ruled that the allegations made byThe Sun weredefamatory and untrue.[71] Burgon was awarded damages of £30,000, which he said would be spent supporting an apprenticeship in Leeds.[70]
Burgon is a fan ofheavy metal music.[72]
His uncle isColin Burgon, the former Labour MP forElmet.[6]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLeeds East 2015–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Shadow Secretary of State for Justice 2016–2020 | Succeeded by |
| Shadow Lord Chancellor 2016–2020 | ||
