Early career and frontbench (2005–2010) McFadden was elected as MP for
Wolverhampton South East at the
2005 general election with 59.4% of the vote and a majority of 10,495. In the 2006 reshuffle he was appointed as
Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office. In the 2007 reshuffle he was promoted to
Minister of State in the then newly created
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform with responsibility for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs. In October 2008, when
Peter Mandelson replaced
John Hutton as Business Secretary, McFadden took on duties as his deputy in order to represent the department in the House of Commons as Mandelson is a peer and can only address the Lords. McFadden was contemporaneously appointed to the Privy Council. At the
2010 general election, McFadden was re-elected as MP for Wolverhampton South East with a decreased vote share of 47.7% and a decreased majority of 6,593.
In opposition Return to the backbenches (2010–2014) After Labour's defeat in the general election and the resignation of
Gordon Brown, McFadden was named in interim leader
Harriet Harman's
shadow cabinet as
Shadow Business Secretary. When
Ed Miliband was elected as Labour leader in September 2010, McFadden announced his decision to stand in
Labour's shadow cabinet election but was not elected.
Miliband and Corbyn frontbench (2014–2016) In the 2014 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, Miliband appointed McFadden as shadow minister for Europe. McFadden was again re-elected at the
2015 general election, with an increased vote share of 53.3% and an increased majority of 10,767. In the
2015 Labour Party leadership election, he nominated
Liz Kendall. McFadden retained his post as Shadow Europe Minister when
Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader but was dismissed along with
Michael Dugher in January 2016. He was dismissed for what the leadership described as repeated acts of disloyalty, including when, responding to a
Stop the War article on the
Paris bombings, he condemned "the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the west do".
John McDonnell said that McFadden's remarks, expressed in a question to the Prime Minister and interpreted as an attack on Corbyn, were an example of him undermining the leader's view. McFadden was defended by
Ian Austin and
Chris Leslie.
Jonathan Reynolds and
Stephen Doughty expressed support for McFadden in their resignation letters the following day.
Backbenches (2016–2020) He supported
Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace
Jeremy Corbyn in the
2016 Labour leadership election. At the snap
2017 general election, McFadden was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 58.2% and a decreased majority of 8,514. McFadden was again re-elected at the
2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 46.4% and a decreased majority of 1,235.
Starmer frontbench (2020–2024) On 9 April 2020, McFadden was appointed as
Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury by new party leader
Keir Starmer. He was promoted to
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the
November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle. In the
2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed
Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and
Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator. In 2023, McFadden ranked twenty-fifth in the New Statesman's Left Power List due to his desire to enforce fiscal discipline.
Return to government (2024–present) At the
2024 general election, McFadden was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 50.3% and an increased majority of 9,188. After the general election, McFadden was appointed
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster by Keir Starmer to serve in
his ministry. In the
2025 British cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, replacing
Liz Kendall. == Political positions ==