Martin Rhodes entered Parliament after a long career in Glasgow politics and the voluntary sector. He taught politics at university, including courses for adults returning to education, and later became chief executive of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum. That organisation campaigns for better prices and working conditions for farmers and workers involved in international supply chains.

Rhodes served on Glasgow City Council between 2012 and 2022, first representing Maryhill/Kelvin and then Partick East/Kelvindale. He was an executive member while Labour controlled the council and later became the Labour group's communities spokesperson. He was also elected an honorary president of LGBT+ Labour Scotland in 2020.

In 2024 he defeated the SNP in Glasgow North, a constituency containing both prosperous university neighbourhoods and some of Scotland's poorest communities. Rhodes received 14,655 votes, or 42.2%, and defeated Alison Thewliss by 3,539. Turnout was only 51.4%.

He has remained a backbencher and serves on the Environmental Audit Committee, which examines whether government policies are consistent with environmental and sustainable-development objectives.

What he stands for

Rhodes is a conventional social-democratic Labour politician with particular interests in poverty, ethical trade, environmental policy, community finance and devolution within Scotland.

His fair-trade background gives him an unusual specialism. He argues that apparently cheap imported products can conceal poverty wages, unsafe employment and environmental damage elsewhere in the supply chain. He has called on government and businesses to make fair-trade certification a more important part of procurement and commercial practice.

On Scottish governance, Rhodes supports devolution but criticises the SNP for concentrating power in Edinburgh. He advocates passing greater authority and investment capacity to Glasgow and other city regions, pointing to the powers available to English combined authorities and elected mayors.

He has generally voted with the Labour government. His voting alignment with other Labour MPs has been recorded at 100% across more than 300 divisions.

What he has delivered

Rhodes has been active in securing parliamentary time for subjects that receive relatively little sustained attention. These include Fairtrade certification, Glasgow's regional economy and the forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

His West Bank debate brought together MPs from several parties to examine settlement expansion, demolitions and settler violence. Rhodes called for Palestinian state recognition and a stronger British response to Israeli settlement activity.

That was a serious use of his backbench position, but securing a debate is not the same as changing foreign policy. The government's eventual decisions on recognition, sanctions and arms exports resulted from much wider diplomatic and political pressure.

Rhodes has also raised the disappearance of free cash machines and banking services from neighbourhoods such as Milton. He has defended credit unions as alternatives to high-cost lending and buy-now-pay-later debt, while warning that inappropriate regulation can threaten their survival.

These interventions correspond closely to Glasgow North's inequalities. Access to cash can appear minor in affluent areas but matters considerably to older people, small traders and residents without dependable digital banking. There is not yet clear evidence, however, that his work has restored a permanent banking service or delivered additional cash machines to the affected communities.

His Environmental Audit Committee membership allows him to contribute to investigations into clean energy, pollution, waste and the environmental effect of government spending. Committee reports are collective products, so individual credit should be limited unless Rhodes leads a particular inquiry or secures implementation of a recommendation.

Failures and unresolved problems

Rhodes' record is currently stronger on parliamentary attention than completed change. His debates on Fairtrade, financial inclusion and Palestinian rights have informed discussion but have not produced legislation or a large policy reversal identifiable with him.

Glasgow North continues to contain severe deprivation alongside its wealthy neighbourhoods. The long-term effects of deindustrialisation, poor health, insecure work, unaffordable housing and public-service pressures cannot be solved by one MP, particularly where responsibilities are divided among Westminster, Holyrood and Glasgow City Council. Nevertheless, those are the conditions against which his effectiveness will ultimately be measured.

His campaign for greater devolution to Glasgow also remains largely an argument. The UK Government's partnership with the Glasgow city region may help develop investment projects, but the substantial transfer of powers he advocates has not yet occurred.

Politically, his majority of 3,539 is respectable but not secure. Labour benefited from a sharp fall in SNP support, while the Greens won 12.2%. A recovery by the SNP or consolidation of the progressive vote could make Glasgow North highly competitive.

Controversies and political judgement

Rhodes has no significant documented personal scandal or finding of parliamentary misconduct. The principal criticism is that his voting record offers little evidence of independence from Labour's leadership.

On assisted dying, however, he exercised an individual judgement. Rhodes voted against the Terminally Ill Adults Bill at third reading, despite having acknowledged arguments in favour of allowing terminally ill adults to choose an assisted death. The vote was a free vote rather than a rebellion against the Labour whip.

His record on Gaza is more complicated than either supporters or critics sometimes suggest. He has pressed the government on Palestinian displacement and state recognition, but he also supported the government's proscription of Palestine Action. These positions are not logically incompatible—one can defend Palestinian rights while opposing a particular organisation—but they illustrate his tendency to combine humanitarian criticism with institutional loyalty.

Rhodes' style is measured and committee-minded. That helps him secure constructive debates but can make his contribution less visible than that of more confrontational Scottish MPs.

Overall assessment

Rhodes arrived with relevant experience in local government, education and ethical trade. He has used Parliament intelligently to raise neglected issues and has shown serious interest in the economic inequalities inside his constituency.

The limitation is tangible delivery. He has not yet produced a major legislative change, secured the devolution he advocates or demonstrated that his campaigns have materially altered everyday services in Glasgow North.

He currently appears to be a thoughtful, experienced and socially conscious backbencher with useful expertise in fair trade and community policy—but one whose effectiveness remains easier to see in the debates he has initiated than in completed reforms.