Richard Burgon

Richard Burgon
Official portrait, 2020
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Shadow Lord Chancellor
In office
27 June 2016 – 6 April 2020
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byThe Lord Falconer of Thoroton
Succeeded byDavid Lammy
Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office
16 September 2015 – 27 June 2016
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byCathy Jamieson
Succeeded byJonathan Reynolds
Member of Parliament
for Leeds East
Assumed office
7 May 2015[1]
Preceded byGeorge Mudie
Majority11,265 (38.6%)
Personal details
Born (1980-09-19) 19 September 1980 (age 44)
Leeds, England
Political partyIndependent
Other political
affiliations
Alma materSt John's College, Cambridge
WebsiteOfficial website

Richard Burgon (born 19 September 1980) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East since 2015. Burgon served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn from 2016 to 2020. A Labour Party MP, on 23 July 2024 he had the whip withdrawn and was suspended from the party for six months as a result of voting for a Scottish National Party amendment to scrap the two child benefit cap. He now sits as an Independent MP until the whip is re-established, subject to a review.

Burgon read English Literature at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was chairman of the Cambridge University Labour Club. After working as an employment lawyer, he was elected as the MP for Leeds East at the 2015 general election.

Burgon was appointed as Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury (City Minister) in September 2015 by new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Burgon was promoted to Shadow Justice Secretary in June 2016 following the organised mass resignations in protest against the leadership of Corbyn. He was a candidate in the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election. He was dismissed from the Shadow Cabinet in April 2020 after Keir Starmer became Labour Leader.

As of March 2021, he was Vice President of Labour CND, a group open to all Labour Party members who are also members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[2]

  1. ^ "Contact information for Richard Burgon - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk.
  2. ^ "LabCND's 2021 annual general meeting". www.labourcnd.org.uk. 4 March 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2021.