Catherine Fookes.

A steady, loyal Labour MP whose most striking characteristic is her hands-on constituency work rather than any parliamentary rebellion. Fookes has not voted against her party once since entering parliament in 2024. Her recent votes follow the Labour line on planning reform, climate legislation, and steel tariffs, and her stance data flags some notable patterns: she scores far above her party average on assisted dying access (+31 percentage points), aligns more strongly with energy security votes, and diverges sharply from party colleagues on whistleblower protection and the private school VAT measure.

At 80% voting participation — broadly in line with the Commons average — Fookes is an active, if not exceptional, attender. Her 193 contributions across 123 debates show genuine parliamentary engagement, with economy and jobs dominating her speech topics, followed by environment, social care, and agriculture. The agriculture focus is likely shaped by her rural Monmouthshire constituency, where she has lobbied the Treasury on farm tax relief and taken credit for influencing a favourable outcome for local farmers. Her low scores on parliamentary scrutiny (13%) and Lords scrutiny (4%) suggest she votes consistently to move government business forward rather than slow it down for amendment.

Local press coverage over the past year has been notably positive: her first year in post generated a report crediting her office with handling over 9,000 constituent queries and resolving more than 1,000 cases. Pieces in the Chepstow Beacon, Monmouthshire Beacon, and Abergavenny Chronicle portray her as accessible and hands-on — joining litter picks, backing skate park funding bids, attending community events. She holds no committee seats. Voting data covers her full term since July 2024; speech and news data provide solid recent coverage.