Bishop Auckland.

Rushworth's most significant recent action came on the assisted dying bill, where he voted against his party four times on a single day in June 2025 -- opposing Third Reading and backing amendments to close the so-called "voluntary starvation loophole." That cluster of rebel votes marks him as one of the Labour MPs most willing to break ranks on this issue, and his stance profile confirms the pattern: he sits notably above his party average on both end-of-life autonomy and assisted dying safeguards, suggesting a nuanced position rather than simple opposition to the bill. He also attracted scrutiny in July 2025 when Raptor Persecution UK reported that he had received a £10,000 donation from a grouse moor gamekeeper group without adequate disclosure while advocating for the industry.

Outside those flashpoints, Rushworth is a 96.3% party-line voter with a participation rate of 73%, slightly below the Commons average. He speaks most frequently on economy and jobs, local government, health, and cost of living -- topics that map closely to Bishop Auckland's economic profile. His deviations from the party average skew toward tighter immigration controls and stronger pension protection, while he votes less often than Labour peers in favour of civil liberties measures. He shows consistent support for workers' rights and progressive taxation, and little appetite for increased Lords scrutiny.

Rushworth sits on the International Development Committee. His health coverage is notably positive -- he raised failures at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust at PMQs and backed a local Tourette's campaign -- suggesting active constituency casework. The grouse moor story is the main reputational complication in the available data. Vote and speech records are complete from July 2024 onward; news sentiment is based on 177 articles over the past 90 days.