Peter Swallow

Peter Swallow was elected Labour MP for Bracknell on 4 July 2024 with 14,783 votes (33.7 per cent) and a majority of 784 (1.8 per cent), the first Labour MP in the constituency's history. Born in Wokingham in 1993 and raised in Crowthorne within the seat he now represents, he is 32 and one of the youngest MPs in Parliament, and chairs the Sutton Trust, one of the UK's most prominent social mobility organisations.

A classicist by training, he holds an MA from St Andrews, an MSt from St Hilda's College, Oxford, and a 2020 KCL PhD on the natural science of Aristotle, and before Parliament he held a postdoctoral research post at King's College London, taught at Durham and Goldsmiths, worked as a schoolteacher, and since 2017 has worked with the Advocating Classics Education project widening access to classical study in state schools. That background in education and access is the spine of his politics.

He chairs three All Party Parliamentary Groups, on Social Mobility, on Schools, Learning and Assessment, and on Classics, and is Vice Chair of the APPG for the South East. He sits on the Education Committee and the Joint Committee on Human Rights, placements that map directly onto his expertise. He has voted in 460 divisions with no whipped rebellions, and his most frequent debating partners include Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and the Prime Minister, an active engagement with senior ministers on education and social mobility. He has led constituency campaigns on SEND reform, the Cadets and road safety.

Reform UK took 7,445 votes (17.0 per cent). The constituency covers Bracknell, Crowthorne, Sandhurst and Whitegrove.