| Simon Lightwood | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | MP |
| Office: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Transport |
| Term Start: | 9 July 2024 |
| Office1: | Shadow Minister for Local Transport |
| Term Start1: | 27 September 2022 |
| Term End1: | 4 July 2024 |
| Predecessor1: | Sam Tarry |
| Office2: | Member of Parliament for Wakefield and Rothwell |
| Term Start2: | 23 June 2022 |
| Predecessor2: | Imran Ahmad Khan |
| Majority2: | 9,346 (23.1%) |
| Birth Name: | Simon Robert Lightwood |
| Birth Date: | 1980 12, df=y |
| Birth Place: | South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England |
| Residence: | Ossett, West Yorkshire, England |
| Party: | Labour and Co-operative[1] |
| Alma Mater: | Bretton Hall College |
| Website: | www.simonlightwood.org.uk |
| Leader1: | Keir Starmer |
| Predecessor: | Guy Opperman |
| Primeminister: | Keir Starmer |
Simon Robert Lightwood (born 15 December 1980)[2] is a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wakefield and Rothwell since 2024. From a 2022 by-election until 2024, he represented Wakefield.[3] [4] He has served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport since July 2024,[5] having previously been Shadow Minister for Local Transport from 2022 until 2024.[6]
Lightwood was born in 1980 and grew up in South Shields. After his family home was repossessed when he was aged 13, he family was forced to live with his grandmother.[7] Lightwood has a degree in theatre acting from Bretton Hall College and bought his first house in Wakefield.[8]
Lightwood was a case worker for the former Wakefield MP Mary Creagh, between 2005 and 2009. He later worked for the National Health Service,[9] and has served on the Labour Party's National Policy Forum as a Yorkshire representative.[10] At the time of running for parliament, he was Head of Communications for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.
On 3 May 2022, Imran Ahmad Khan resigned as MP for Wakefield after being convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy, thus forcing a by-election. At the by-election held on 23 June 2022, Lightwood was elected as MP with a 4,925 majority.[11]
At the 2022 Labour Party Conference, Lightwood was appointed Shadow Minister for Local Transport.[12]
In the 2024 general election,Lightwood was re-elected as the MP for the new parliamentary constituency of Wakefield and Rothwell with a majority of 9,346. [13]
Following the Labour Party victory in the 2024 general election, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Local Transport Minister). [14]
Lightwood lives in Ossett, Wakefield, with his husband and children, having pledged to move from his previous home in Calderdale to Wakefield following his election.[15] [16]
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