Rachel Taylor

Rachel Taylor was elected Labour MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth on 4 July 2024 with 14,727 votes and a majority of 2,198 (5.4 per cent), overturning a Conservative majority of 17,956 and defeating Craig Tracey, who had held the predecessor seat since 2015. On 11 May 2026 she called on Keir Starmer to resign as Prime Minister. An MP with a 2,198 majority publicly demanding the removal of her own party leader is either principled or reckless.

Born and educated in Warwickshire and a graduate of the University of Leeds, she was Vice President of the National Union of Students, an early national political role, before working as a property solicitor at a high street firm in the constituency and running her own legal services company, Rachel Taylor Consultancy Limited. She was elected to North Warwickshire Borough Council in May 2023, serving a single year before her parliamentary election. She is an LGBTQ+ MP who has championed LGBTQ+ rights and greater inclusion in sport.

She chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Freight and Logistics and sits on the Women and Equalities Select Committee. She has launched campaigns on freight crime, local bus services across North Warwickshire and Bedworth, and HS2 disruption and poor public engagement.

The seat has a long swing history: Conservative under Francis Maude from 1983, Labour under Mike O'Brien from 1992 to 2010, then Conservative under Dan Byles and Craig Tracey to 2024. It has changed hands before, and Taylor's win follows O'Brien's precedent that Labour can hold it for extended periods when conditions allow. Reform UK took 10,701 votes (26.2 per cent), making this one of the seats where Reform's share most directly threatens Labour's survival.