Political career
Sobel joined the Labour Party in 1997. [7] In the 2005 general election,he was the Labour candidate for the Beaconsfield constituency. [7] He finished 3rd,receiving 8,422 votes and 19.4% of the vote. [10] After standing unsuccessfully in four Leeds City Council elections between 2002 and 2007,he was elected as a Labour councillor for the Moortown ward in the 2012 council election,and was re-elected in the 2016 council election. [11] [12] [13] He led the council's work on air pollution and climate change. [14]
In the 2015 United Kingdom general election,he unsuccessfully contested the Leeds North West constituency. Sobel finished in second place behind the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland,receiving 13,041 votes and 30.1% of the vote. [15] He was involved in the Leeds Campaign against the Bedroom Tax. During the election,Sobel and the Leeds North West Labour Party were required to publish an apology leaflet and pay legal costs after falsely claiming that the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland voted for the Academies Act 2010. [16] In December 2015,Sobel co-founded the activist group Open Labour. [17]
At the 2017 general election,he was elected as MP for Leeds North West,gaining the seat from Greg Mulholland. [18] [19] Sobel won 20,416 votes,with 44.1% of the vote and a majority of 4,224. [19] In October 2017,Sobel was elected as one of the officers of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on rare,genetic and undiagnosed conditions. [20] In 2019,he formed an All-Party Parliamentary Group aiming to reduce carbon emissions to net zero as early as possible. [21]
On 15 March 2019,Sobel supported Youth Strike for Climate,speaking at one of their school strikes,also praising Leeds City Council's decision to declare a Climate Emergency,saying "We will be the biggest council in the country to have declared a climate emergency. Nearly 800,000 people live in our great city." [22]
In October 2019 Alex Sobel openly supported and spoke at an Extinction Rebellion occupation of Westminster,London despite warnings by the Met Police he could be arrested if he did so. [23]
"I'm here right in front of Parliament because the Government hasn't declared a climate emergency,they haven't conceded to any of three demands of Extinction Rebellion,and action needs to happen immediately," "We are not seeing a fall in our climate emissions,we are not seeing the transformation of our society that we need if we are to avoid warming of over one and a half degrees and the terrible climatic effects that will bring and what's really important here is one,we're building public pressure,and two we're pressuring the legislature,we're pressuring Parliament."
Sobel was re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased majority of 10,749. [24]
In January 2020,Sobel apologised after receiving criticism for meeting with the director of Population Matters,a controversial human population control charity. [25]
In April 2020,Sobel became shadow minister for arts,heritage and tourism. [26]
In March 2021,Sobel wrote a letter to Robert Jenrick,the Secretary of State for Housing,Communities and Local Government,on behalf of Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA). [27]
"I have requested that the split decision of the cross party plans panel to grant the new terminal and extend flight times at Leeds Bradford Airport be called in by the Government. This application was predicated on an expansion of flights equating to 3 million more passengers annually which is not in keeping with the sixth and subsequent UK carbon budgets which calls for no net increase in aviation emissions,nor is it in keeping with the recent Heathrow judgement in the Supreme Court." "I do not believe that a local plans panel of 14 councillors is in any way a competent body to be making a decision of this significance. Applications which significantly affect the Carbon Budget must be made nationally. We need a national aviation plan and significant measures to reduce net emissions from UK flights. I look forward to seeing these in the Government's response to the Committee on Climate Change's Sixth Carbon Budget Report."
In December 2021,Sobel became Shadow Minister for Nature Recovery and the Domestic Environment. [3] He left the position in the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle. [28]
In July 2023 the New Statesman named Sobel within a small list of Labour MPs who understand climate change. In this article he was described by Richard Benwell as having a "Hermione Granger-style time-turner because he is indefatigable in turning up to almost every environment event". [29]
