Mick Whitley is the Labour MP for Birkenhead, having first been elected to Parliament in 2019 with a majority of 17,705.
A former ship building area, the Merseyside seat of Birkenhead has been represented by the Labour Party ever since 1945. Located to the east of the Wirral peninsula, this seat includes the town of Birkenhead, and the areas around Tranmere, Prenton, Rock Ferry and Oxton. This area of the Wirral has always been loyal to Labour even when other parts were leaning to the Conservatives. It was previously represented for forty years by Frank Field. Field was a Brexit supporter, and having fallen out with the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, he stood as an Independent in 2019 and secured 7,285 votes.
Born in 1951, Mick Whitely had previously served in the merchant navy and worked in a Vauxhalls’ car plant, before becoming a trade union official. He served as a TGWU shop steward at Merseyside’s Vauxhall plant for almost three decades, and was later the Regional Secretary for the Unite Union.
Whitley serves as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ed Miliband. In December 2021, he briefly resigned from the Labour front bench after rebelling against a plan to make vaccinations compulsory for NHS staff.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Whitley was one of 11 Labour MPs who backed a statement from the Stop the War coaltion which appeared to take issue with the claim that NATO was a defensive alliance, and which appeared to criticise the block’s move eastwards. Alongside the other MPs, he later withdrew his name from the statement.
Considered to be on the left of the Labour Party, he supported Rebecca Long Bailey in the 2020 Labour leadership election. He is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Council Housing, Free Ports, and State Pension Inequality for Women.
Email – mick.whitley.mp@parliament.uk
Website – www.mickwhitleyforbirkenhead.com
Twitter – @MickWhitleyMP
