Peterborough.

Pakes has been most visible in Parliament on two fronts: assisted dying and constituency transport. On 20 June 2025 he broke from the Labour majority five times during the Report Stage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, voting to tighten safeguards -- including backing amendments to close a loophole that could allow voluntary starvation to qualify someone as terminally ill. His voting record places him above his party average on end-of-life autonomy but closer to party average in opposing the bill outright, suggesting a position of conditional support with stricter guardrails. Locally, he has raised congestion from HGVs in Parliament, backed the Freight Forward rail freight report, and pressed the rail minister over cuts to LNER services affecting Peterborough commuters.

At 69% participation he votes in roughly two thirds of divisions -- below the Commons average. Otherwise he is a 96.9% party-line voter. His stance profile is strongly pro-workers' rights (95%) and pro-progressive taxation (94%), and he sits notably above his Labour colleagues on pension protection (+54 percentage points). He speaks frequently on the economy, jobs, social care and fiscal policy, with defence and environment also featuring. His 181 contributions across 117 debates since July 2024 indicate genuine parliamentary activity even where his vote attendance is middling.

Context worth noting: Peterborough's local press covers him heavily on knife crime and broader crime issues -- 41 articles combined -- suggesting these dominate the local news environment, though his own speech topics lean more toward economic and social policy. He sits on the Statutory Instruments Select Committee. News sentiment data covers 104 articles over 90 days; rebel vote data and speech transcripts are available from his 2024 election onwards only.