Naismith built his position inside the local Labour Party rather than arriving through the national party machine. Crewe and Nantwich members selected him after a contested vote in July 2023, with support from local councillors and trade unionists. He then recovered a constituency Labour had lost in 2019.

His influence grew when he attached himself to the alliance that displaced Keir Starmer. After Labour's poor local election results in May 2026, Naismith was among the earlier MPs to demand a timetable for Starmer's departure and argued that Andy Burnham should be given a route back into Parliament. He formally nominated Burnham for the leadership in July.

Burnham's victory put Naismith on the winning side of Labour's internal contest. On 27 July 2026 he was appointed as one of the Department for Transport's parliamentary private secretaries. That was an unpaid political-assistant post, not ministerial office. It showed that the new leadership trusted him, but gave him no departmental budget or executive power.

What he stands for

Naismith has publicly identified with Blue Labour. He and two other Labour MPs described its economics as "unashamedly left-wing": public ownership of public services, an industrial strategy for neglected towns and taxes shifted towards wealth and unearned income. Its social politics favour lower, controlled immigration, patriotism and strong support for the police.

That places him on Labour's economic left while accepting more socially conservative arguments than many Labour MPs. He has backed railway nationalisation and stronger state intervention in struggling high streets, while arguing that Labour loses working-class support when it dismisses concerns about immigration, national identity or public order.

His conduct on welfare was less consistent. In July 2024 he followed the Labour whip and voted against a King's Speech amendment calling for the two-child benefit limit to be abolished. By September 2025 he had signed a letter urging the Chancellor to remove it. The later position matched his stated economics, but he adopted it after initially putting party discipline first.

What he delivered and what remained unfinished

Naismith's clearest parliamentary result came through the Railways Bill. Working with the charity Railway Children, he proposed that Great British Railways services should belong to an accredited safeguarding scheme. The government did not add his new clause to the Bill, but it launched the Safer Railway Scheme and committed every Great British Railways service to accreditation. The transport secretary explicitly said the announcement addressed his proposal. The scheme created national standards for protecting vulnerable people and responding to crime, harassment and threats to passengers and staff.

That is a real policy gain, though shared with the charity, British Transport Police and ministers. No published evaluation had established its effect by 30 July 2026.

His larger local campaigns had not produced comparable completed results. Naismith presented the rebuilding of Leighton Hospital as a priority, but the hospital had already been selected for the New Hospital Programme in May 2023, more than a year before he became an MP. Labour's 2025 review retained it in the first construction wave, with an estimated cost of £1 billion to £1.5 billion and work expected to start in 2027 or 2028. Planning permission followed in 2026. He supported and defended the project, but he neither originated nor funded it, and construction had not begun.

He also pressed for a comprehensive redevelopment of Crewe station. The government's response identified maintenance work from Network Rail's existing national settlement, not a funded rebuild. The Northern Powerhouse Rail announcement did not provide a dedicated Crewe station scheme. The campaign produced access to ministers and eventually a junior departmental appointment, but no completed station transformation.

Capability judgement

Naismith has shown that he can win internal support, recognise a change in Labour's leadership and turn a specific safeguarding proposal into a government commitment. His strongest result was political negotiation, not administration.

The rest of the record is still thin. He has sometimes followed the leadership before adopting a more critical position, and his largest constituency projects were inherited or remained unbuilt. His transport appointment reflects confidence in his judgement and party management. It does not yet prove that he can control public spending, deliver major infrastructure or run a department.