Parliamentary career
McDonald was elected to Parliament when he won the Middlesbrough by-election held on 29 November 2012,retaining the seat for Labour following the death of Sir Stuart Bell. McDonald increased the party's share of the vote to 60.5%,though his majority was reduced by 500 to 8,211. [10]
Since his election to Parliament,he has campaigned against the "Bedroom Tax" (part of the Welfare Reform Act 2012) and in favour of nationalisation of the East Coast Main Line franchise,arguing that the Scotland-London railway had been the only one in the country "which comes close to paying for itself" and that journey numbers,revenue and customer satisfaction had grown since nationalisation in 2009. [11]
In February 2013,he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Emily Thornberry,the Shadow Attorney General. Following Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet reshuffle in October 2013,he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chuka Umunna,in Umunna's role as Shadow Secretary of State for Business,Innovation and Skills. [12]
At the 2015 general election,McDonald was re-elected with an increased vote share of 56.8% and an increased majority of 12,477. [13]
In January 2016,McDonald was appointed to Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet to replace Jonathan Reynolds,who resigned as Shadow Minister for Rail in protest after Corbyn sacked Pat McFadden. [14] [15]
In June 2016,he was promoted to Shadow Transport Secretary during Corbyn's post-Brexit Shadow Cabinet reshuffle. [16] In his time as Shadow Transport Secretary,McDonald oversaw the development of Labour's policy to nationalise the railways. On the 25th anniversary of the privatisation of the railways,McDonald said privatisation had failed since the taxpayer was "putting in even more money to the privatised system than when it was nationalised",and that nationalisation would allow a Labour government to cap fares and run the railways in the interest of passengers. [17]
At the snap 2017 general election,McDonald was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 65.7% and an increased majority of 13,873. [18]
In March 2018,McDonald was accused of comparing the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust by Karen Pollock,the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust [19]
At the 2019 general election,McDonald was again re-elected,seeing his share of the vote decrease to 50.5% and his majority reduced to 8,395. [20]
In April 2020,incoming leader Keir Starmer moved McDonald to the role of Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights and Protections. [21] McDonald was the chair of Labour's "Power in the Workplace Taskforce" which provided input into Labour's Employment Rights' Green Paper published in September 2021. The paper stated that "Labour is demanding that the minimum wage is immediately raised to at least £10 per hour for all workers". [22] In September 2021,McDonald resigned as Shadow Secretary,citing lack of support from Starmer for an increase in the minimum wage to £15 per hour. He said he had been instructed by Starmer's office to argue at the Labour Party Conference "against a national minimum wage of £15 an hour and against statutory sick pay at the living wage". [23]
In April 2023,using parliamentary privilege when speaking in the House of Commons,McDonald alleged "shocking,industrial-scale corruption" surrounding the Teesworks free port development near Redcar. [24] [25] In May 2023,the government commissioned an independent review into the allegations. [26] [27] In the subsequent report published in January 2024,the review found no evidence to support allegations of corruption or illegality whilst going on to make recommendations to improve governance and transparency of the project. [28]
In June 2023,McDonald condemned the government's proposal to house 1,500 asylum seekers on a barge,possibly in Middlesbrough. [29]
In October 2023,McDonald lost the Labour whip after using the phrase "between the river to the sea" at a pro-Palestine rally. [30] Consequently,he sat as an independent MP. [31] [32] [33] In early November 2023,McDonald announced that he would sue Conservative MP Chris Clarkson over his response to his comments. [34] McDonald had the Labour whip reinstated on 11 March 2024. [35] This was confirmed by a Labour Party spokesperson. [30] The party's investigation found that he had "not engaged in conduct that was against the party's rulebook". [30] In a statement McDonald said,"It was never my intention to use words that would cause anyone distress or anguish and I bitterly regret the pain and hurt caused. Accordingly,I will not use that phrasing again." [30]
