Tristan Osborne

Tristan Osborne was elected Labour MP for Chatham and Aylesford on 4 July 2024 with 13,689 votes (33.5 per cent) and a majority of 1,998 (4.9 per cent), with Reform UK on 24.5 per cent. Born in Truro and brought to the Medway area aged three, he grew up in Rochester, won a scholarship to The King's School there as a Rochester Cathedral chorister, and took two Durham degrees, a BA in Natural Sciences and an MA in Business Management.

His career before politics was unusually varied: financial risk management for a banking startup, advising political parties on business regulation, a stint as a Metropolitan Police Special Constable, and teaching geography. The policing experience was directly relevant; on Medway Council his cabinet brief was community safety and enforcement, so he had worked the frontline before taking political responsibility for it. First elected in 2011 as Medway's youngest councillor, he spent 13 years on the council across two wards, became Cabinet Member for Community Safety when Labour took control in 2023, and resigned in December 2024.

The 2024 win was his third attempt at higher office, not his first: he had contested this seat in 2015, losing to the Conservative Tracey Crouch, and stood unsuccessfully for Kent Police and Crime Commissioner in 2016. He sits on the Public Accounts Committee and has been an active contributor on health and social care and on environment and rural affairs.