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Alex Sobel

Alex Sobel
MP
Official portrait, 2019
Shadow Minister for Nature Recovery and the Domestic Environment
In office
4 December 2021 – 5 September 2023
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byOlivia Blake
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Shadow Minister for Tourism and Heritage
In office
9 April 2020 – 4 December 2021
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byKevin Brennan
Succeeded byJeff Smith
Member of Parliament
for Leeds Central and Headingley
Incumbent
Assumed office
4 July 2024
Preceded byConstituency established
Majority8,422 (26.7%)
Member of Parliament
for Leeds North West
In office
8 June 2017 – 30 May 2024
Preceded byGreg Mulholland
Succeeded byKatie White
Member of Leeds City Council
for Moortown
In office
3 May 2012 – 3 May 2018
Preceded byMark Harris
Succeeded byMohammed Shahzad
Personal details
Born
Alexander David Sobel

(1975-04-26) 26 April 1975 (age 49)
Leeds, England
Political partyLabour Co-op
Alma materUniversity of Leeds
Websitealexsobel.co.uk

Alexander David Sobel (born 26 April 1975)[1] is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds Central and Headingley, previously Leeds North West, since 2017. He served as Shadow Minister for Nature Recovery and the Domestic Environment from 2021 to 2023.[2][3]

Early life and career

Alexander Sobel was born on 26 April 1975 in Hyde Park, Leeds,[1] to parents who came to England from Israel in 1971.[4] He grew up in Beaconsfield, attending Holtspur Middle School and John Hampden Grammar School.[5] As a teenager, he joined anti-fascist and environmental protests in Leeds.[6]

After graduating in information systems at the University of Leeds in 1997, Sobel worked with social enterprises, and ran the regional body Social Enterprise Yorkshire and the Humber from 2009 until 2017.[7][8]

Political career

Sobel joined the Labour Party in 1997.[6]

After standing unsuccessfully in four Leeds City Council elections between 2002 and 2007, he was elected as a Labour councillor for the Moortown ward in the 2012 council election, and was re-elected in the 2016 council election.[9][10][11] He led the council's work on air pollution and climate change.[12]

In December 2015, Sobel co-founded the activist group Open Labour.[13]

Parliamentary career

At the 2005 general election, Sobel stood as the Labour candidate in Beaconsfield, coming third with 19.4% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MP Dominic Grieve and the Liberal Democrat candidate.[14]

At the 2015 general election, Sobel stood in Leeds North West, coming second with 30.1% of the vote behind the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland.[15][16] During the election, Sobel and the Leeds North West Labour Party were required to publish an apology leaflet and pay legal costs after falsely claiming that the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland voted for the Academies Act 2010.[17]

Sobel was elected to Parliament as MP for Leeds North West at the snap 2017 general election with 44.1% of the vote and a majority of 4,224.[18]

In October 2017, Sobel was elected as one of the officers of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on rare, genetic and undiagnosed conditions.[19]

On 15 March 2019, Sobel supported Youth Strike for Climate, speaking at one of their school strikes, also praising Leeds City Council's decision to declare a Climate Emergency, saying "We will be the biggest council in the country to have declared a climate emergency. Nearly 800,000 people live in our great city".[20]

In October 2019 Sobel openly supported and spoke at an Extinction Rebellion occupation of Westminster, London despite warnings by the Met Police he could be arrested if he did so.[21]

"I'm here right in front of Parliament because the Government hasn't declared a climate emergency, they haven't conceded to any of three demands of Extinction Rebellion, and action needs to happen immediately," "We are not seeing a fall in our climate emissions, we are not seeing the transformation of our society that we need if we are to avoid warming of over one and a half degrees and the terrible climatic effects that will bring and what's really important here is one, we're building public pressure, and two we're pressuring the legislature, we're pressuring Parliament."

At the 2019 general election, Sobel was re-elected as MP for Leeds North West with an increased vote share of 48.6% and an increased majority of 10,749.[22][23][24]

In December 2019, he formed an All-Party Parliamentary Group aiming to reduce carbon emissions to net zero as early as possible.[25]

In January 2020, Sobel apologised after receiving criticism for meeting with the director of Population Matters, a controversial human population control charity.[26]

In April 2020, Sobel became shadow minister for arts, heritage and tourism.[27]

In March 2021, Sobel wrote a letter to Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, on behalf of Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA). [28]

"I have requested that the split decision of the cross party plans panel to grant the new terminal and extend flight times at Leeds Bradford Airport be called in by the Government. This application was predicated on an expansion of flights equating to 3 million more passengers annually which is not in keeping with the sixth and subsequent UK carbon budgets which calls for no net increase in aviation emissions, nor is it in keeping with the recent Heathrow judgement in the Supreme Court." "I do not believe that a local plans panel of 14 councillors is in any way a competent body to be making a decision of this significance. Applications which significantly affect the Carbon Budget must be made nationally. We need a national aviation plan and significant measures to reduce net emissions from UK flights. I look forward to seeing these in the Government's response to the Committee on Climate Change's Sixth Carbon Budget Report."

In December 2021, Sobel became Shadow Minister for Nature Recovery and the Domestic Environment.[2] He left the position in the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle.[29]

In July 2023 the New Statesman named Sobel within a small list of Labour MPs who understand climate change. In this article he was described by Richard Benwell as having a "Hermione Granger-style time-turner because he is indefatigable in turning up to almost every environment event".[30]

Following the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the Headingley and Weetwood wards of the Leeds North West constituency were moved into the newly created constituency of Leeds Central and Headingley. At the 2024 general election, Sobel was elected to Parliament as MP for Leeds Central and Headingley with 50.2% of the vote and a majority of 8,422 over the second-placed Green Party candidate. There were eight candidates, and a turnout of 45 %. The result was described as "Labour Hold" because the notional 2019 result for the new seat was a win for Labour.[31][32]

Personal life

Sobel is married, with two sons and lives in Leeds.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b "Alex Sobel MP". myparliament.info. MyParliament. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Alex Sobel: Parliamentary career". UK Parliament. Retrieved 14 June 2023. Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) 4 December 2021 – Present
  3. ^ "Meet our Shadow Cabinet". The Labour Party. Archived from the original on 14 June 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  4. ^ Cohen, Justin (16 July 2017). "New Jewish MP 'proud' to represent city his immigrant parents made home". Jewish News. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  5. ^ "Beaconsfield: Alex Sobel (Labour)". Bucks Free Press. 25 April 2005. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  6. ^ a b "MP Alex Sobel discusses abuse and being in Labour despite antisemitism crisis". www.thejc.com. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  7. ^ a b Who's who 2018. London: A&C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. 2018. p. 2286. ISBN 978-1-4729-3501-4. Retrieved 18 November 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ "Labour and Green Party election candidates announced for Leeds North West". Ilkley Gazette. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  9. ^ The Thoresby Society (5 August 2017). "Index of Leeds City Council election candidates 1980–2016" (PDF). thoresby.org.uk (2nd ed.). p. 32. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 November 2023. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  10. ^ Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael. "Leeds City Council Election Results 1973–2012" (PDF). electionscentre.co.uk. pp. 25, 26, 27, 31, 36. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020. Elections Centre, Plymouth University{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  11. ^ Teale, Andrew. "Local Elections Archive Project — Moortown Ward". andrewteale.me.uk. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  12. ^ "Real time #ElectionLeaflet monitoring". ElectionLeaflets.org. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  13. ^ Letters (9 December 2015). "Time to unite Labour's democratic left – Letters". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  14. ^ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  15. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  16. ^ "Leeds North West". BBC News. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  17. ^ "Labour party forced to send out apologies". Ilkley Gazette. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  18. ^ "Leeds North West". Election 2017. BBC. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  19. ^ "The Westminster All Party Parliamentary Group on Rare, Genetic and Undiagnosed Conditions". Genetic Alliance UK. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
  20. ^ Sobel, Alex (19 March 2019). "MP Speaks at Youth Climate Change Rally as City Council Declare 'Climate Emergency'". alexsobel.co.uk.
  21. ^ Scott, Geraldine (9 October 2019). "'My personal wellbeing is less important than the planet' – MP Alex Sobel speaks at Extinction Rebellion demonstrations". Yorkshire Evening Post.
  22. ^ Hyde, Nathan (13 December 2019). "Leeds Labour MP slams party over antisemitism and calls for new leader". Leeds Live. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  23. ^ "General Election 2019: Leeds North West Constituency: Statement of Persons Nominated". Leeds City Council. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  24. ^ "Leeds North West General Election 2019 results in full". Manchester Evening News. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  25. ^ "Shadow Foreign Office role for MP". Ilkley Gazette. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  26. ^ Cooper, Joe (31 January 2020). "Leeds MP Alex Sobel apologises for meeting 'controversial' population size charity". Yorkshire Evening Post. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  27. ^ "Shadow Cabinet post for Otley's MP". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  28. ^ "GALBA Welcomes Alex Sobel MP's Support in Calling-In the LBA Expansion Application". www.galba.uk. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  29. ^ "Meet our Shadow Cabinet". The Labour Party. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  30. ^ Bourke, India (19 July 2023). "Who in Labour gets climate and nature?". New Statesman. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  31. ^ "Leeds Central and Headingley – General election results 2024". BBC News. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  32. ^ "UK Parliament election results: Notional election for the constituency of Leeds Central and Headingley on 12 December 2019". UK Parliament election results. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Leeds North West
2017–2024 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
New seat
 Member of Parliament for Leeds Central and Headingley
2024–present 		Incumbent
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