Keir Mather

Aged 25 at his election, Mather became the youngest serving MP, known as the Baby of the House, succeeding Nadia Whittome (born 1996).

Upon his election, the Veterans' Affairs Minister Johnny Mercer said that parliament "mustn't become a repeat of The Inbetweeners", a television show which featured adolescent schoolchildren.

This was considered to be a derogatory reference towards Mather's age, which Mercer denied.

Mercer's comment was criticised by Labour politicians, including the Labour leader Keir Starmer.

The Guardian noted that former prime ministers William Ewart Gladstone and Winston Churchill became MPs at the ages of 22 and 25 respectively.

Mather was sworn in as an MP on 5 September 2023, following the summer break.

In interviews with BBC News and The Press from the same month, Mather said his main priority as an MP was to support people affected by the cost of living crisis.

Other priorities included addressing insufficient SEND provision, rural crime, anti-social behaviour, underpeforming NHS services, little public transport provision and supporting small businesses.

Mather made his maiden speech on 16 October 2023, during a debate on Early Years Childcare.

Mather became a member of the Treasury Select Committee on 20 November 2023.

Mather supports Labour Friends of Israel.

Keir Alexander Mather (born 1998) is a British Labour politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Selby and Ainsty since the 2023 by-election.

At the time of his election, aged 25, Mather became the youngest serving MP.

Keir Alexander Mather was born in 1998 in Kingston upon Hull.

He was named after Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party.

Mather spent his childhood in Brough, East Riding of Yorkshire.

His mother, Jill Tambaros (née Golding), is a supply teacher, and his father, Mick Mather, is a support worker.

His father is also a Labour Party activist.

Mather had once joined the Youth Parliament, and set up a Labour group for young people in Hull.

He was educated "for a short time" at a private prep school, and then at state schools including South Hunsley School in Melton.

His mother recalled, in 2023, that Mather was interested in politics as a schoolboy: "When he was 16, I was dropping him off at the office of every MP in Hull, ... He said 'I'm going to introduce myself to them'. I thought it was funny he was so determined to go and see all those MPs."

He received undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Oxford, graduating with a first in history and politics at Wadham College before receiving a Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree at University College.

According to Paul Martin, Mather's politics tutor at Oxford, Mather was specifically interested in New Labour and "had a lifelong interest" in its major figures.

Intent on becoming an MP, Mather studied for the MPP at Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government as a Political Leadership Scholar, in a scheme that was "open to applicants from the UK and Republic of Ireland who intend to run for public office".

While a student at Oxford, he was an appointed official of the Oxford Union debating society as head of research, and was also a co-chair of the Oxford University Labour Club.

While studying at Oxford, Mather worked as a researcher for The Times journalist and former Conservative MP Matthew Parris.

Mather voted for Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

He does not support rejoining the European Union or holding a second referendum on the issue.

In 2023, Mather said he supported Labour leader Keir Starmer's policy of maintaining the two-child benefit cap, adding: "I think we're going to inherit an absolute economic mess from the Conservatives when we take power and we're going to have to make extremely difficult decisions once we do, and I support the Labour government in doing so."

On gender identity, Mather has said "a woman is like my mum or my stepsister, somebody who is born biologically a woman. But there is a very small minority of people who feel like they’ve been born into the wrong gender and they deserve respect and care."

In 2018, during a debate at the Oxford Union, Mather allegedly called Germaine Greer "an abhorrent transphobe" for stating that transgender women were not women.

He also said Greer had made "dehumanising and downright dangerous comments about transgender women".

When asked if he wanted to renounce his statements about Greer as an MP in 2023, Mather said: "What I said is on the record. I really strongly disagree with her outlook and approach to the issue."

Mather is gay.

He supports the rugby league club Hull Kingston Rovers.

Mather worked as a public affairs adviser for the Confederation of British Industry for 18 months before entering Parliament and was a parliamentary researcher for Labour MP Wes Streeting from 2019 to 2020.

Mather won the seat of Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire in a by-election held on 20 July 2023, caused by the resignation of the Conservative MP Nigel Adams.

Adams's previous majority of 20,137 votes at the 2019 general election was the largest ever overturned by Labour in a by-election, as well as the largest swing for a Labour by-election candidate since the 1994 Dudley West by-election.