Josh MacAlister | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of Parliament for Whitehaven and Workington | |
| Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Majority | 13,286 (31.7%) |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Labour |
| Website | joshforwestcumbria |
Joshua MacAlister [1] OBE is a British Labour politician who has been Member of Parliament for Whitehaven and Workington since 2024. [2] [3]
MacAlister's father worked as a social worker. [4]
MacAlister studied for,and received,an MA (Hons) in politics and social policy at the University of Edinburgh. MacAlister served as President of the Edinburgh University Students’Association. [5] In 2008,he unsuccessfully contested the Presidency of the National Union of Students Scotland.
MacAlister also studied for,and received,a masters degree in leadership in education at the University of Manchester. [6]
MacAlister trained as a teacher through the Teach First Programme and went on to work as a teacher in Oldham.
During his time as a teacher,MacAlister began to engage with young people with experience of the care system. These experiences led MacAlister to establish Frontline,a graduate social worker training programme modeled on Teach First,in 2013. [4] The first cohort began their training the following year. [6]
In 2019,the Department for Education provided Frontline with £45 million in funding. [7]
In January 2021 MacAlister stepped down from his role at Frontline in order to chair an independent review of children's social care. [7] MacAlister's appointment was criticized by some social work academics who questioned whether he could be impartial given that Frontline had received central government funding. [7]
In June 2021,the review published its interim findings. In October 2021 the review published a second report in response to the feedback received on the interim report. The final report of the review was published in May 2022. [8]
MacAlister was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the King's 2023 New Year's Honours for services to vulnerable children. [9]
In June 2023,MacAlister was selected as the Labour Party's candidate for the newly created constituency of Whitehaven and Workington. [10]
At the 2024 general election,MacAlister was elected as the Member of Parliament for Whitehaven and Workington. MacAlister was elected with 53% of the vote and a majority of over 13,000 votes. [11]
In 2023 MacAlister joined his local mountain rescue team. [12] In July 2024,shortly after being elected as an MP,MacAlister was called out to a mountain rescue. [13]
In 2024,PinkNews listed him as an out LGBTQ+ parliamentarian. [14] He is married to educationalist Matthew Hood. [15]
