He stood at the
Uxbridge by-election in July 1997, following the unexpected death seven days after the
1997 general election of incumbent Sir
Michael Shersby. The seat, which had a small Conservative majority, was held for the Conservatives by
John Randall. At the
2005 general election, Slaughter was elected as the member of parliament for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush in London, retaining the seat for Labour following the retirement of his predecessor,
Clive Soley. Slaughter is currently a member of the Justice Select Committee. He was a member of the
Communities and Local Government Select Committee in 2009–10 and in 2010 of the
London Regional Select Committee and Joint Committee on Human Rights. Previously he was member of the
Regulatory Reform Select Committee (2005–07) and
Children, Schools and Families Select Committee (2007–09). Slaughter's interests include the Middle East and particularly Palestine. He is Secretary of the Britain-Palestine
All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. His interests are reflected in the other APPGs of which he is a member, including Democracy and Human Rights in the Gulf, Fire Safety and Rescue, Gypsies, Travellers and Roma, Heathrow, and Legal Aid. The Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush constituency underwent a boundary change for the
2010 general election, and on 30 November 2006, the new Hammersmith
Constituency Labour Party selected Slaughter as the Labour candidate for the new
Hammersmith seat which he won in the 2010 general election with an increased majority. On 11 September 2024, Slaughter was elected Chair of the Justice Committee by vote in the House of Commons.
In government He was appointed
Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to
Stephen Ladyman MP, Minister of State for the
Department for Transport and served from November 2005 to June 2007. In June 2007, he was appointed PPS to
Lord Malloch-Brown,
Minister of State at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and also served as PPS to
Lord Digby Jones, Minister of State at the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office and
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and between July 2007 and October 2008. Slaughter also campaigned against the expansion of
Heathrow Airport during his time in Government. On 27 January 2009, he resigned his PPS role as he opposed the Government's plans for a third runway at Heathrow.
In opposition In October 2010, Slaughter was invited to join the Labour frontbench as
Shadow Justice Minister. Slaughter served as the lead shadow minister opposing the
Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 and the Justice and Security Act 2012. He resigned in June 2016, citing concerns over
Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. He supported
Owen Smith in the
2016 Labour Party leadership election. Slaughter was appointed as Shadow Minister for Housing in October 2016; In the
November 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, he became the new
Shadow Solicitor General. On 15 November 2023, Slaughter voted for an
SNP amendment to the King's Speech, demanding an immediate ceasefire in
Gaza, contrary to the
Labour Party's official stance to support
HM Government line on the
Gaza war. He was dismissed by Sir
Keir Starmer from his position as
Shadow Solicitor General. ==References==