Sam Tarry is the Labour MP for Ilford South, having first been elected to Parliament in 2019 with a majority of 24,101 over the Conservative Party.
Found to the outer north east of London, Ilford North has now become one of Labour’s safest seats having formerly been a marginal constituency for much of the Twentieth Century. Over half the electorate are of Asian descent, and more than a third of voters are classified as Muslims by religion. This seat has been held by Labour continuously since 1992.
Tarry served as a Shadow Transport spokesperson between 2020 and 2022, but he was dismissed from the front bench by Sir Keir Starmer in July 2022 after he joined a picket line of rail workers during the rail strikes in the summer of 2022.
He was deselected by his local party as the Labour candidate for Ilford South in October 2022. In doing so he became the first Labour MP to have been deselected for 10 years.
Born in 1982, Sam Tarry was educated at St Edward’s Church of England School in Romford, and University College London. He worked as the national political officer for the TSSA trade union before being elected to Parliament. He was previously a Director of the think tank, Labour and Social Studies,
Tarry served as the Director of Jeremy Corbyn’s 2015 and 2016 Labour Leadership campaign and is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs.
Firmly on the left of the Labour Party, Tarry was a director of the Momentum group and supported Rebecca Long Bailey in the 2020 Labour leadership election.
Speaking after Labour’s 2019 election defeat, he criticised Tony Blair for people’s lack of trust in Labour. A polished media performer, Tarry is expected to be a leading figure on the left of the Labour Party in the future.
Tarry was elected as a Councillor in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham between 2010 and 2018. He is a supporter of the non league football team, Dagenham and Redbridge.
He was a former National Chair of Young Labour.
In early 2022, the Daily Mail reported that there was a romantic link between Tarry, and Labour’s Deputy leader, Angela Rayner. The paper claimed that Mr Tarry, a father of two, had parted from his wife. In 2020, Tarry ran the deputy leadership campaign of Angela Rayner.
He is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Burma, the Indo-British Group, Nepal, Pakistan Trade and Tourism, Crossrail, Rohingya, and Tamils.
Email – sam.tarry.mp@parliament.uk
Twitter – @SamTarry
