Darren Jones (politician)

Darren Paul Jones (born 13 November 1986) is a British Labour politician and solicitor, who has been the Member of Parliament for Bristol North West since 2017. Jones is currently Convenor of the Future Britain Group, an alliance of Labour Parliamentarians from the party's democratic socialist and social-democratic traditions.

Early life and education 

Jones was born in north Bristol, at Southmead Hospital, and grew up in Lawrence Weston and Shirehampton. He attended Avon Primary School and Portway Community School  and studied for A Levels at the Bristol Post-16 Centre before going up to the University of Plymouth, where he received a bioscience degree and was subsequently elected President of the Students' Union.

Jones worked in the National Health Service in Bristol and Plymouth, including at the Southmead and Henbury Family Practice. He served as a governor on the boards of Plymouth University and the Plymouth NHS Trust, and had a weekly newspaper column in the Plymouth Herald.

Jones later resumed his studies at the University of the West of England, where he was awarded a postgraduate law degree before completing his legal education at the University of Law.

Legal career 

Jones specialises in technology law, and initially worked at Womble Bond Dickinson LLP in Bristol, where he developed an advisory practice in the energy and telecommunications sectors, later moving to London to become an in-house counsel with BT, leading on EU-wide legislative projects covering data, privacy, cyber-security, telecommunications and consumer law.

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 brings together leading lawyers to advise politicians and civil servants on legal questions raised by Brexit.

Early political career 

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.

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.

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.

Parliamentary career and political positions 

At 2017’s snap general election, Jones — who had been readopted as Labour’s candidate in Bristol North West after securing a sabbatical from his job at BT to stand, assuring his managers that chances of victory were slim — 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.

Following his election, Jones identified softening or stopping Brexit as his “number one obligation,” reflecting that he had won partly thanks to “borrowed” support from pro-European constituents who had not traditionally voted Labour. He supports holding a referendum on any Brexit deal with an option to remain, and has consistently voted in favour of measures to preserve links with the EU, guarantee the residency rights of European citizens, and prevent the UK leaving without a deal. He sits on the European Scrutiny Committee.

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.

Jones has also drawn attention to the impact of spending cuts, speaking out against library closures and in favour of greater school and sixth form funding, and has repeatedly voted against reductions in the local government grant. He has campaigned on a wide range of other issues including access to childcare for working parents and public sector investment in education, health and frontline policing. He is a frequent champion of workers during industrial disputes, such as the hostile takeover of GKN by Melrose), and took a leading role in successfully securing £12m from AstraZeneca for former employees following the closure of its site in north Bristol. Jones has worked closely with local stakeholders to raise the challenges associated with Brexit and industrial pollution.

Drawing on his expertise as a lawyer, Jones has continued to focus on digital economy and automation issues, partly through his work as a member of the cross-party Science and Technology Committee and as chair of the Parliamentary Internet, Communications and Technology Forum (PICTFOR) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Connected Places. He is widely recognised as one of the most active parliamentarians on technology policy, notably leading a debate in Westminster Hall on the ethical and other implications of developments in facial recognition technology. He has advocated implementing electronic voting to reduce costs and boost electoral turnout, and suggested Bristol as a trial area. Jones also runs Labour Digital, a centre-left think tank focusing on technology issues; and founded the Institute of Artificial Intelligence, a global not-for-profit network of legislators engaged in discussions around the regulation of AI technologies.

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.

Jones is the Chair of Labour Friends of India, and a parliamentary supporter of Labour Friends of Israel.

Jones has sought to raise awareness of the need to eradicate modern slavery. He is a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association champion, working with counterparts across Commonwealth legislatures to build better multilateral frameworks for tackling human trafficking, and previously led a delegation to East Africa, helping to secure legislative changes as part of support provided by the British government to Kenya.

He has spoken about the persistence of gender inequality and prevalence of sexual harassment.

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 though coffee mornings, 'pub politics' sessions, street stalls, town hall-style briefings and popular weekly Q&A sessions live-streamed on Facebook.

Personal life 

Jones is married to renewable energy lobbyist and technology entrepreneur Lucy Symons-Jones, who co-founded renewable energy company Village Infrastructure. They have two daughters, and Jones has called for the implementation of electronic or proxy voting in the House of Commons to make Parliament a more attractive workplace for new parents.

Jones is a jazz saxophonist and a practising vegan, also serving as vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vegetarianism and Veganism.

References

External links
Darren Jones MP website

Category:1986 births
Category:Living people
Category:Alumni of the University of Plymouth
Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Category:Labour Friends of Israel
Category:UK MPs 2017–2019
Category:UK MPs 2019–
Category:Politics of Bristol
Category:English solicitors