Peter Prinsley

Last updated
Peter Prinsley
MP FRCSE FRCS
Official portrait of Peter Prinsley MP crop 2.jpg
Official portrait, 2024
Member of Parliament
for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
Incumbent
Assumed office
4 July 2024
Website peterprinsley.org

Peter Richard Prinsley [2] (born 8 April 1958) [3] is a British Labour Party politician, who was elected as Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket in the general election held on 4 July 2024. [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Prinsley was born on 8 April 1958 in Ilkley, Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Guisborough Grammar School, a grammar school in Guisborough. [5]

Career

Prinsley is an otorhinolaryngologist by profession (a surgeon specialising in diseases of the ear, nose, and throat). He was educated at Sheffield Medical School. [6] Before being elected to Parliament, he worked as a consultant ENT surgeon at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital, James Paget University Hospital and in private practice. [7] [8] He has an interest in Otology and taught at Norwich Medical School.

After working as a consultant surgeon for 20 years, Prinsley studied for a Doctor of Medicine degree at the University of East Anglia. [9] He has published on a variety of academic topics with a particular focus on cholesteatoma. [10] Since becoming an MP an article of his has been published on the 'Epidemiology of Cholesteatoma in the UK Biobank'.[ citation needed ]

Prinsley has been a regional director for the Royal College of Surgeons, [11] and was the chair of the Norfolk Deaf Association. [12]

Prinsley was elected as a Norwich City councillor in 2023. [13] He is a member of the Jewish Labour Movement and GMB. [14]

Member of Parliament

Prinsley had sought selection as Labour candidate for both Norwich North [15] and Great Yarmouth, but was unsuccessful. After the 2024 election was called, the Labour Party told him he had been selected to fight Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, [16] and his successful election was seen as a surprise win in an area that has traditionally been heavily Conservative. [17] He defeated Conservative candidate Will Tanner, who had previously served as the Deputy Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He campaigned in an old Post Office van, decorated with photographs of him in surgical scrubs, becoming one of the oldest first-time MPs. He has said that, regarding the jobs of surgeon and MP, 'both of these roles have their uses'. [16]

In October 2024, Prinsley suggested that £100m spent on F-35 fighter jets for HMS Queen Elizabeth would be better spent on the BBC World Service. [18]

He is the vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness, an officer for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vascular and Venous Disease, and a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on the East of England, Health and British Sign Language. [19]

In September 2025 he was found in breach of parliamentary rules, after failing to declare an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel. He joined a “solidarity” trip in May that was organised and funded by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). Prinsley apologised for the late declaration, which he blamed on an “administrative error” by one of his staff members. [20] Later that month, Prinsley and fellow MP Simon Opher were denied entry into Israel during a trip to the occupied West Bank organised by the Council for Arab-British Understanding. The pair were part of a parliamentary delegation observing medical and humanitarian work being undertaken by Medical Aid for Palestinians and other organisations. [21] The British Foreign Office described the denial as "totally unacceptable and deeply concerning." [21]

Personal life

He is Jewish and attends Norwich Synagogue. [14] His wife, Dr Marian Prinsley, is a retired psychologist and former president of the Norwich Hebrew Congregation who became the Sheriff of Norwich in 2019. [22] Mr Prinsley's brother-in-law is John Schlapobersky, a group psychotherapist and anti-apartheid activist who was a Founding Trustee of the Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture. The Prinsleys have three adult children and are grandparents. [13]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.peterprinsley.org/about//
  2. ↑ "Members Sworn". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . Vol. 752. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Commons. 10 July 2024.
  3. ↑ https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/bury-st-edmunds/news/we-ve-finally-turned-a-tide-labour-s-peter-prinsley-on-wh-9373672/
  4. ↑ "Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket – General election results 2024". BBC News. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
  5. ↑ "Prinsley, Dr Peter Richard, (born 8 April 1958), MP (Lab) Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, since 2024". Who's Who 2025 . Oxford University Press. 1 December 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  6. ↑ "GMC". General Medical Council. Retrieved 2023-07-11.
  7. ↑ Heywood, Harriet (7 July 2024). "Who are the newly elected MPs for Suffolk?". BBC News. Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  8. ↑ "Mr Peter Prinsley. Consultant Ear, Nose & Throat Surgeon". Spire Healthcare. Retrieved 2024-07-07.
  9. ↑ "Rhinology and Olfactology Research Group". UEA. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  10. ↑ "Peter Prinsley". ResearchGate. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  11. ↑ "In conversation with Peter Prinsley: Norwich ENT surgeon elected as the Labour MP". Ent & Audiology News. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  12. ↑ "Vote for Peter Prinsley in Eaton". Norfolk Labour. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  13. 1 2 Derrick, Paul (9 July 2024). "Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket's new Labour MP Peter Prinsley on his history-making election and hopes for the future". Suffolk News. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  14. 1 2 "Jewish NHS doctor announced as Labour candidate for Suffolk seat". The Jewish Chronicle . 24 May 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  15. ↑ "Peter Prinsley MP". 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
  16. 1 2 "'I didn't expect to win'". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  17. ↑ "'I can't believe Labour have actually won here'". BBC News. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  18. ↑ Webb, Freddie (22 October 2024). "Royal Navy: MP believes £100m spent on F-35 fighter jets for HMS Queen Elizabeth should go to BBC instead". The News Portsmouth. Retrieved 24 October 2024.
  19. ↑ "APPG officer roles". UK Parliament . Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  20. ↑ Williams, Martin (2 September 2025). "Labour MP broke rules over Israel trip". Declassified UK. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  21. 1 2 Catt, Helen; Whannel, Kate (16 September 2025). "Two Labour MPs denied entry to Israel". BBC News . Retrieved 19 September 2025.
  22. ↑ Grimmer, Dan (21 May 2019). "Who has become the new Lord Mayor and Sheriff of Norwich?". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
New title Member of Parliament
for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket
2024–present		Incumbent
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