Peter Christopher Dowd (born 20 June 1957) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...

since

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. From 2017 to 2020, he served as the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Early life and education

Peter Dowd was born on 20 June 1957 in

in a large

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family with a long history of activism in the Labour Party. His great-uncles, Simon and Peter Mahon, served as Labour MPs. Dowd went to local primary and secondary schools and college, before earning an undergraduate degree from Liverpool University, and then a postgraduate degree from

Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

Political career

Dowd was a Merseyside County Councillor from 1981 to 1986 for the Hawthorne ward. He became a Sefton Borough councillor in 1991 when he replaced Joe Benton for the Derby ward. He was a councillor for Derby from 1991 to 2003, before he moved to St Oswalds ward (covering Netherton and Marion Square). He was also chair of Merseyside Fire Authority in the 1990s. Dowd was elected Sefton Labour group leader after the death of Dave Martin, and was leader until 2015. He was consequently elected Leader of Sefton Council from 2011 to 2015.

Parliamentary career

At the 2015 general election, Dowd was elected to Parliament as MP for

with 74.5% of the vote and a majority of 28,704. Dowd was one of 48 Labour MPs to vote against the second reading of the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

government's Welfare Reform and Work Bill, which included £12 billion in welfare cuts, on 20 July 2015. In doing so they defied the party's leadership, which had ordered MPs to abstain. In February 2017,

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

, the leader of the Labour Party, appointed him to the position of Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Dowd was re-elected as MP for Bootle at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 84% and an increased majority of 36,200. He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 79.4% and a decreased majority of 34,556. He was again re-elected at the 2024 general election with a decreased vote share of 68.7% and a decreased majority of 21,983. In November 2024, Dowd voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which proposes to legalise

assisted suicide Assisted suicide, sometimes restricted to the context of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is the process by which a person, with the help of others, takes actions to end their life. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifie ...

Personal life

On 6 October 2020, Dowd's daughter, Jennie, died at the age of 31 following a cycling collision. The driver was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dowd, Peter 1957 births Living people Alumni of Lancaster University Alumni of the University of Liverpool Councillors in Merseyside Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Bootle UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–2024 UK MPs 2024–present Leaders of local authorities of England Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East