Mary Kelly Foy.

Foy has voted against her own party five times since January 2026, making her one of the more active rebels on Labour's left flank. Her most striking defiance came in April, when she backed a motion to refer Prime Minister Keir Starmer to the Privileges Committee over the Peter Mandelson appointment — a vote Labour fought hard with a three-line whip. She has also broken ranks to oppose the tuition fee rise, expanded Public Order Act protest powers, and a Lords amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that she and a small group of colleagues argued bundled in a civil liberties threat. Her 93.7% party alignment rate means these departures are selective rather than habitual, but they cluster clearly around civil liberties and welfare.

Outside the chamber, she has been a consistent presence on local issues: raising SEND provision at PMQs, lobbying the council over hospital parking chaos, and championing Maya's Law on child safeguarding reform. She participates in 73% of votes — slightly below the Commons average — and her 128 contributions span health, local government, economy and social care. The stance data shows her furthest from her party on welfare, opposing welfare reform votes at a rate 65 points above the Labour average and resisting assisted dying access at a rate 47 points below it.

Her committee seat is on the Procedure Committee, which oversees how Parliament works rather than policy directly. News coverage over the past 90 days is high in volume — 86 articles — dominated by crime, culture, and jobs issues in the Durham area. No individual news scores stand out in the recent 90-day window, though earlier coverage from her Maya's Law and Durham Pride advocacy was notably positive.