Alex Cunningham

Alexander Cunningham (born 1 May 1955) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton North since 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Courts and Sentencing since 2020. Born in Scotland and raised in Darlington, Cunningham began his career as a journalist in Teesside and later worked as a private sector communications officer in the region. He served on Cleveland County Council from 1984 to 1997 and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council from 1999 to 2010, where he was a member of the council's executive. Elected to Parliament at the 2010 general election, he deselected long serving incumbent MP Frank Cook to become the Labour candidate. Cunningham joined the opposition front bench as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sadiq Khan, Shadow Justice Secretary, and became Shadow Natural Environment Minister in 2015. He resigned in 2016 due to a lack of confidence in Jeremy Corbyn's party leadership, but rejoined as Shadow Pensions Minister later in the year. Resigning from the front bench for the second time in 2017, to vote against the Labour whip on Brexit, he spent two years as backbencher before his appointment as a Shadow Housing Minister in 2019.