James Daly

James Daly is a former criminal lawyer and solicitor for the defence. Indeed, Daly has only ever worked for defence, calling himself a “believer in redemption”. Correspondingly, he is a proponent of reduced prison sentences for young offenders. Daly was a partner at a local law firm in Bury, where he later became leader of the Conservative group on Bury Council. He narrowly took back Bury for the Conservatives in the 2019 general election after it was lost to Labour two years earlier. His slim majority of just 105 votes makes the constituency the most marginal in Great Britain and the second most marginal in the UK. His election victory came after two previous unsuccessful contests in Bolton North East and one in an Oldham West and Royton by-election. In July 2020, the Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Daly when he would resign from his position as councillor (which earns him an additional annual salary of £8,708 on top of his salary as an MP), to which Daly responded, simply, “No comment”. Since 2020, he has been on the Justice Committee. He chairs the APPG on youth employment.