Christian Wakeford is now the Labour MP for Bury South, having won his seat in 2019 as the Conservative candidate, doing so with a majority of just 402.
He currently serves as an opposition whip, a post he has held since November 2022.
In January 2022, with the Conservatives floundering in the polls, Wakeford crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join Labour, citing displeasure with Boris Johnson’s leadership. He became the first MP of this Parliament to cross the floor, a practice that previously became popular in the heyday of the Brexit debate in 2019, and in the last years of the Major government back in the mid 1990s.
Bury South is known as having one of the largest Jewish populations of any seat outside London, and contains the southern edge of Bury and then the former mill towns of Prestwich, Radcliffe, and Whitefield. Bury South had been held by Labour between 1997 and 2019. It is now the Conservatives third most marginal seat at Westminster, albeit it remains safer than the neighbouring Bury North.
Born in 1984, Christian Wakeford studied chemistry at the Open University, and then Politics at Lancaster University. He worked as an insurance broker, and as an account manager, before being elected to Parliament.
Wakeford was previously elected to Lancashire County Council in 2013, and to Pendle Council in 2015, where he was subsequently leader of the Conservative group.
He was formerly a youth worker at his local church.
At Westminster, Wakeford is the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Alcohol Harm, and British Jews, and Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Israel, and Antisemitism. He is also a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Education Technology, E-Sports, Insurance and Financial Services, and School Food.
He is married with a daughter, and enjoys football and rugby union. He professes a love of real ale.
Email – christian.wakeford.mp@parliament.uk
Website – www.christianwakeford.org.uk
Twitter – @CllrCWakeford
