Alex Cunningham

Alex Cunningham
Official portrait, 2017
Shadow Minister for Courts and Legal Services
Assumed office
9 April 2020
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byPosition established
Shadow Minister for Housing
In office
8 April 2019 – 9 April 2020
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byMelanie Onn
Succeeded byMike Amesbury
Shadow Minister for Pensions
In office
14 October 2016 – 21 December 2017
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byAngela Rayner
Succeeded byJack Dromey
Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment
In office
18 September 2015 – 27 June 2016
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byBarry Gardiner
Succeeded byMary Glindon
Sue Hayman
Member of Parliament
for Stockton North
In office
6 May 2010 – 30 May 2024
Preceded byFrank Cook
Succeeded byChris McDonald
Personal details
Born
Alexander Cunningham

(1955-05-01) 1 May 1955 (age 69)
Harthill, Scotland
Political partyLabour
Spouse
Evaline
(m. 1977)
Children2
Alma materDarlington Technical College
Occupation
  • Politician
  • journalist
WebsiteOfficial website

Alexander Cunningham[1] (born 1 May 1955)[2] is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton North from 2010 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he was Shadow Minister for Courts and Sentencing from 2020 to 2024.

Born in Scotland and raised in Darlington, Cunningham began his career as a journalist in Teesside and later worked as a private sector communications officer in the region. He served on Cleveland County Council from 1984 to 1997 and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council from 1999 to 2010, where he was a member of the council's executive.

Elected to Parliament at the 2010 general election, he deselected long serving incumbent MP Frank Cook to become the Labour candidate. Cunningham joined the opposition front bench as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sadiq Khan, Shadow Justice Secretary, and became Shadow Natural Environment Minister in 2015. He resigned in 2016 due to a lack of confidence in Jeremy Corbyn's party leadership, but rejoined as Shadow Pensions Minister later in the year. Resigning from the front bench for the second time in 2017, to vote against the Labour whip on Brexit, he spent two years as backbencher before his appointment as a Shadow Housing Minister in 2019.

  1. ^ "No. 59418". The London Gazette. 13 May 2010. p. 8745.
  2. ^ "Alex Cunningham MP". BBC Democracy Live. BBC. Retrieved 25 July 2010.