Richard Burgon

Richard Burgon has been the Labour MP for Leeds East since 2015. Support for the Labour Party runs in the family — Burgon’s uncle is the former Labour MP for Elmet, Colin Burgon. Prior to entering Parliament, Burgeon was a trade union lawyer. Upon entering Parliament, when taking his mandatory oath of allegiance to the queen, Burgon hinted at his republicanism, using the following wording: “as someone that believes that the head of state should be elected, I make this oath in order to serve my constituents”. A strong ally to Jeremy Corbyn, Burgon was shadow treasury minister from 2015 to 2016, and shadow justice secretary from 2016 to 2020. Burgon came third in the election for deputy leadership of the Labour Party in April 2020. Recently, he has been pushing the government to introduce a wage floor in light of Covid-19, explaining that “minimum wage workers in very high virus areas whose workplaces have been forced to shut will now have to live off just two thirds of the minimum wage”. He is currently a member of the justice committee and the consolidation and bills sub-committee.