Darren Jones

Following Starmer's election as Labour leader in April 2020, Jones was appointed PPS jointly to Shadow Justice Secretary David Lammy and Shadow Attorney General Charlie Falconer, and served until his election as Chair of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on 6th May. In his capacity as a committee chair Jones sits on the National Security Strategy Joint Committee and Liaison Committee.

In Bristol, Jones started a successful mentoring programme seeking to bring young people from his old school in Lawrence Weston into the legal profession. He later chaired the Young Lawyers’ Network, a nationwide group campaigning for a vote to remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, and sat on the board of UK Legal Futures, which brought together leading lawyers to advise politicians and civil servants on legal questions raised by Brexit.

Following the election, Jones joined the campaign of Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham as its South West Co-ordinator, and chaired Marvin Rees’ successful campaign to become Mayor of Bristol. In 2016 he joined the Remain campaign in the EU membership referendum and later worked for the Clinton campaign in Miami during that year’s US Presidential election.

Jones was re-elected at the 2019 general election, bucking the national trend by increasing his majority at an election which saw a significant nationwide swing to the Conservatives . In the subsequent leadership election, he nominated Jess Phillips and, following her withdrawal from the race, backed Keir Starmer.

In Parliament, Jones has spoken about the persistence of gender inequality and prevalence of sexual harassment. and was an active supporter for the introduction of proxy voting in the House of Commons to allow MPs to take parental leave. On 19 February 2019 he led a Westminster Hall debate calling for universal state funded childcare. Jones is the Chair of Labour Friends of India, and a parliamentary supporter of Labour Friends of Israel.

In 2019, Jones published a pamphlet – called “Labour and the next Recession” – advocating for an increase in government spending to pre-empt a recession he predicted would take place in 2020 or 2021. In the pamphlet, Jones called for spending to be prioritised on technology adoption across the private and public sector to deal with economic productivity and decarbonisation.

Locally Jones has campaigned for greater strategic investment in affordable housing and public transport across Bristol North West, for instance championing local rail projects such as the Henbury Loop Line, and launched a comprehensive North Bristol Transport and Housing Plan in January 2019.

Following his election, Jones set up the Henacre Trust charitable fund, named after the street in Lawrence Weston where he grew up; the Trust awards grants to unlock educational and career opportunities for young people from poorer backgrounds in Bristol North West. In 2019 Jones was nominated for a Patchwork Foundation People's Choice MP of the Year Award for his work in engaging with his constituents through coffee mornings, 'pub politics' sessions, street stalls, town hall-style briefings and popular weekly Q&A sessions live-streamed on Facebook.

At 2017’s snap general election, Jones took an absolute majority of the vote on a 9.2 percent swing, a surprise victory he credits in part to his outspoken opposition to Brexit in the heavily remain-voting constituency. In his maiden speech, Jones noted that he was the first Darren ever elected to Parliament.

Jones has spoken repeatedly in Parliament about the urgency of tackling climate change — securing an adjournment debate in November 2018, the first on the topic in that Parliamentary session ⁠— and acted as the lead member on the Science and Technology Committee's inquiry on decarbonisation and clean growth. He frequently makes the case for greater interchange between technology and climate policy and advocates for technological solutions to climate issues. He is a Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

In 2012 Jones was selected to contest his home constituency of Bristol North West, which had been gained by the Conservatives in 2010 with Labour falling into third place. At the subsequent election in 2015, Jones emphasised the need for investment in the National Health Service as well as his local credentials — he would have been, and later became, the constituency's first MP to be born and raised there. Although Jones increased the Labour vote share by 9 percent, the incumbent MP Charlotte Leslie was re-elected on the back of a national swing to the Conservatives.

Jones fought what he identifies as his first campaign while at school, in a push to prevent the planned closure of his local sixth-form college. He chaired his university's Labour Students branch and, following internships with local MPs Alison Seabeck and Linda Gilroy, was selected as Labour's candidate in the Conservative-held Torridge and West Devon seat at the 2010 general election. Jones sat on the national youth committees of the Co-operative Party and Unite the Union and was later elected to Unite's Regional Committee in the South West.

Darren Paul Jones (born 13 November 1986) is a British Labour politician serving as Chair of the House of Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee since 2020. He has been the Member of Parliament for Bristol North West since 2017.