Stephen Morgan is the Labour MP for Portsmouth South, having first been elected to Parliament in 2017, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 5,363.
He currently serves as the shadow rail minister, having been important to the role as part of Keir Starmer’s September 2023 reshuffle.
Portsmouth South is the more diverse of the Portsmouth seats with one sixth of its voters from an ethnic minority. The seat contains Portsmouth’s docks and shipyards, the coastal settlement of Southsea, and the area around Portsmouth’s Fratton Park football ground. It also has a large student population estimated to be in the region of 20,000. A former Liberal Democrat – Conservative marginal, this seat turned heavily to Labour in 2017. In the face of the Conservative landslide victory in 2019, Labour nevertheless increased its vote share here by 7.6% in 2019.
Morgan previously served as the shadow schools minister from 2021-2023. Before this, he served as Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces, having been appointed to the role by Keir Starmer in April 2020.
Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership he held two frotnbench positions, first as the shadow minister for communities and then as shadow minister for defence procurement.
Born in 1981, Stephen grew up in Fratton in this constituency, before studying politics and sociology at the University of Bristol. He later gained a master’s degree in politics at Goldsmiths in London.
Prior to being elected to parliament, Stephen worked in local government at Portsmouth City Council, before become Head of Community Engagement for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. From 2015 until his election in 2017, he was Chief Executive of the charity Basingstoke Voluntary Action.
Having been elected to Portsmouth City Council in 2016, Morgan became Leader of the Labour Group on the Council within 5 months.
Morgan supported Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and supported Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour leadership election.
Morgan is gay, and patron of LGBT+.
Stephen Morgan is Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Business in a Pandemic (Covid) World, Key Cities, Maritime and Ports, Shipbuilding and Ship Repair, and UK Islands.
Email – stephen.morgan.mp@parliament.uk
Website – http://stephenjmorgan.org/
Twitter – @StephenMorganMP
