Rother Valley.

A steady government loyalist with a notable local campaign, Jake Richards has not broken from Labour on a single vote since entering Parliament in 2024. His most visible recent act was opposing the opposition's attempt to refer Prime Minister Starmer to the Privileges Committee in April 2026 -- a vote that split along strict party lines. He has also backed the government consistently through the final parliamentary stages of the English Devolution, Children's Wellbeing, and Pension Schemes Bills.

Richards votes with Labour 100% of the time, and his stance profile reflects that: strongly pro-workers' rights, near-unanimous on progressive taxation, and firmly opposed to Lords scrutiny. His participation rate of 75% sits below the Commons average. Where his voting does diverge from the Labour average -- rather than from whipped positions -- is on climate action (37% against a party average of 52%) and welfare expansion (38% against 49%), though these gaps reflect absences and procedural patterns rather than deliberate rebellion. Speeches are dominated by crime and social care, with health a recurring third theme -- consistent with his work raising male suicide rates at PMQs and co-founding an All-Party Parliamentary Group on the issue, which drew positive local coverage in Doncaster and Rotherham.

Richards was appointed to a government role in September 2025, which likely explains some of his below-average voting attendance -- ministers frequently miss divisions. He holds no select committee seat. Local news coverage over the past 90 days runs to over 100 articles, with crime the dominant issue and sentiment broadly neutral. The fracking-related news items in the data concern his predecessor, Alexander Stafford, not Richards himself.