Ian Byrne

A favourite among the Labour leadership during the 2019 general election – his campaign leaflets featured endorsements from John McDonnell, Richard Burgon and Laura Pidcock – Ian Byrne’s victory in Liverpool West Derby was unsurprising, but not uneventful. Following his selection as the Labour candidate, LBC discovered sexist and offensive online comments from Byrne dating up to 2015. Byrne quickly issued an apology and said that it was his political education that had given him an awareness of the offence he had previously caused, explaining “I’m a very different person now and I’m grateful that the labour and trade union movement has enabled me and so many other working-class people to represent and fight for our communities.” In 2015, Byrne founded Fans Supporting Foodbanks – an initiative which encourages fans of Liverpool and Everton football clubs to fight food poverty in Liverpool by holding food bank collection points at home games and outside pubs on matchdays. Bryne has been a Liverpool City councillor since 2018 and donates his councillor allowance to Vauxhall Law Centre. He currently sits on the housing, communities and local government committee and the environment, food and rural affairs committee.