Andy Slaughter

Parliamentary career

He stood at the Uxbridge by-election in July 1997, following the unexpected death seven days after the 1997 general election of incumbent Sir Michael Shersby. The seat was held for the Conservatives by John Randall.

At the 2005 general election, Slaughter was elected as the member of parliament for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush in London, retaining the seat for Labour following the retirement of his predecessor, Clive Soley.

Slaughter has been Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party London Regional Group since 2007. He was a member of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee in 2009–10 and in 2010 of the London Regional Select Committee and Joint Committee on Human Rghts. Previously he was member of the Regulatory Reform Select Committee (2005–07) and Children, Schools and Families Select Committee (2007–09).

Slaughter's interests include the Middle East and particularly Palestine. He is Secretary of the Britain-Palestine All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. His interests are reflected in the other APPGs of which he is a member, including country groups for Bahrain, Somalia, Albania, Kosovo and Spain. He is a member of Labour Friends of Poland and of the Caribbean, and of domestic groups for Crossrail, Housing, Gypsy Roma and Travellers, and Conflict Issues.

He has spoken in the House of Commons on housing, local government, education and climate change issues.

He has campaigned against increases in Air Passenger Duty, Heathrow expansion and the planned demolition of social housing by the Conservative Council in his constituency.

The Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush constituency underwent a boundary change for the 2010 general election, and on 30 November 2006, the new Hammersmith Constituency Labour Party selected Slaughter as the Labour candidate for the new Hammersmith seat which he won in the 2010 general election with an increased majority.

In government

He was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Stephen Ladyman MP, Minister of State for the Department for Transport and served from November 2005 to June 2007. In June 2007, he was appointed PPS to Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and also served as PPS to Lord Digby Jones, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and between July 2007 and October 2008.

On 27 January 2009, he resigned his PPS role as he opposed the Government's plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

In opposition

In October 2010, Slaughter was invited to join the Labour frontbench as Shadow Justice Minister with responsibility for courts and tribunals, criminal law, freedom of information, the legal profession, civil justice reform and Legal Aid. Slaughter served as the lead shadow minister opposing the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 and the Justice and Security Act 2012. He resigned in June 2016, citing concerns over Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. He was appointed as Shadow Minister for Housing in October 2016, however he was sacked from the frontbench in June 2017 after he voted in favour of an amendment to the Queen's Speech which called on the UK to remain in the European Single Market, in defiance of the Labour whip.