Official portrait of Josh MacAlister

Josh MacAlister

Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, since 4 July 2024

Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Josh MacAlister is the Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, and has been an MP continually since 4 July 2024. He currently holds the Government post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education).

Scorecard

82.3% Attendance Turns up more often than most MPs who vote
473 Votes cast out of 575 divisions
102 No vote recorded absent, abstaining, paired or unable to attend
0 Against their own party divisions where they voted the other way to most Labour MPs
7 Interests declared 3 at £5,000 or more
96 Debates spoken in 41 written questions tabled

Ranked 138 of 638 MPs for attendance. The median of MPs who vote is 72.3%. Ministers and front-benchers vote less often than backbenchers for reasons of office rather than absenteeism, and Parliament does not publish reasons for any absence — the ranking is a starting point for a question, not an answer to one.

Voting record

575 divisions since they took their seat, newest first.

DateQuestionTheir voteResult
14 May 2025 Data (Use and Access) Bill CCLM: motion to disagree Lords Amendment 49B Aye 297–168
14 May 2025 Data (Use and Access) Bill CCLM: motion to disagree Lords Amendment 43B Aye 304–68
14 May 2025 Data (Use and Access) Bill CCLM: motion to insist Commons Amendment 32 Aye 371–98
13 May 2025 Opposition Day: UK-EU Summit: Government amendment Aye 321–102
13 May 2025 Opposition Day: UK-EU Summit No 104–402
12 May 2025 Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill: Third Reading Aye 316–95
12 May 2025 Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill Report Stage: New Clause 21 No 87–404
12 May 2025 Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill Report Stage: New Clause 18 No 94–315
12 May 2025 Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill Report Stage: New Clause 14 No 98–402
12 May 2025 Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill Report Stage: New Clause 3 No 90–318
7 May 2025 Data (Use and Access) Bill Report Stage: New Clause 21 No vote 97–363
7 May 2025 Data (Use and Access) Bill Report Stage: New Clause 19 No vote 160–294
7 May 2025 Data (Use and Access) Bill Report Stage: New Clause 2 No vote 88–287
7 May 2025 Data (Use and Access) Bill Report Stage: New Clause 1 No vote 76–295
30 Apr 2025 Sentencing Guidelines Third Reading Aye 214–3
30 Apr 2025 Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-Sentence Reports) Bill: Amendment 4 No 88–226
30 Apr 2025 Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-Sentence Reports) Bill: Amendment 3 No 86–222
29 Apr 2025 Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill Report Stage: Amendment 11 No 85–238
29 Apr 2025 Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill Report Stage: New Clause 21 No 95–257
29 Apr 2025 Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill Report Stage: New Clause 10 No 101–258
29 Apr 2025 Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill Report Stage: New Clause 1 No 73–255
28 Apr 2025 Football Governance Bills [Lords]: Second Reading Aye 342–70
28 Apr 2025 Football Governance Bills [Lords]: Reasoned Amendment to Second Reading No 74–337
25 Apr 2025 Closure motion No vote 12–50
25 Apr 2025 Sit in private No vote 1–73

Declared financial interests

Quoted in full from the Register of Members' Financial Interests. Entries where the largest figure is £5,000 or more are marked. A declaration is not a wrongdoing — the register exists precisely so that these things are visible.

2. (a) Support linked to an MP but received by a local party organisation or indirectly via a central party organisation

£20,000

Name of donor: Lord (David) Sainsbury
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £20,000
Donor status: individual
(Registered 21 March 2026)

On the register since 24 Mar 2026

£20,000

Name of donor: Lord (David) Sainsbury
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £20,000
Donor status: individual
(Registered 15 July 2025)

On the register since 5 Aug 2025

2. (b) Any other support not included in Category 2(a)

£10,000

Name of donor: Cressida Pollock and Danny Luhde-Thompson
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £10,000
Date received: 11 July 2025
Date accepted: 11 July 2025
Donor status: individual
(Registered 15 July 2025)

On the register since 5 Aug 2025

3. Gifts, benefits and hospitality from UK sources

Name of donor: Lloyds Banking Group
Address of donor: 25 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7HN
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: Ticket to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show including gala dinner and reception in aid of the Woodland Trust and access to the show, value £919.50
Date received: 18 May 2026
Date accepted: 18 May 2026
Donor status: company, registration 00002065
(Registered 25 June 2026)

On the register since 30 Jun 2026

Name of donor: London Marathon Events Ltd
Address of donor: 190 Great Dover Street, London SE1 4YB
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: Hospitality at the start and finish of the London Marathon 2026, value £350
Date received: 26 April 2026
Date accepted: 26 April 2026
Donor status: company, registration 01528489
(Registered 29 April 2026)

On the register since 19 May 2026

8. Miscellaneous

Volunteer Member of the Council of Management of The Lionel Cooke Memorial Fund Ltd (a funding body supporting Labour causes). This is an unpaid role.
Date interest arose: 1 January 2025
Date interest ended: 30 September 2025
(Registered 7 January 2025; updated 21 March 2026)

On the register since 25 Mar 2026

Mountain Rescue Team Member. This is an unpaid role.
Date interest arose: 5 July 2024
(Registered 23 July 2024)

On the register since 29 Jul 2025

The same register on parliament.uk →

Debates

96 debates contributed to in total. The ten most recent:

Money declared to them

2 donations accepted personally since 4 Jul 2024, worth £11,800 in total — from the Electoral Commission's register, which is a separate register from the one above. Money given to their party is not counted here; this is money declared to them.

AcceptedRecipientDonorTypeValue
1 Oct 2024 Josh MacAlister sitting MP Ben Kingsley Individual Non Cash Consultancy services £8,000
1 Oct 2024 Josh MacAlister sitting MP Smartphone Free Childhood Ltd Company Non Cash Administration services £3,800

Where the public money goes — contracts and donations →


Sources: Commons Votes API, Members API and the Register of Members' Financial Interests, all published by Parliament under the Open Parliament Licence; donations from the Electoral Commission's register. This member's register and debate record were last refreshed 4 Aug 2026. How every figure is worked out →

Machine-readable: JSON for this MP.

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