Before his election, Farrelly held elected office within the
Hornsey and Wood Green Constituency Labour Party as well as in Newcastle-under-Lyme. He unsuccessfully contested
Chesham and Amersham at the
1997 general election, finishing in third place. Farrelly was selected to contest his hometown seat of
Newcastle-under-Lyme following the retirement of the Labour MP
Llin Golding at the
2001 general election, and he held the seat comfortably with a majority of 9,986. He made his maiden speech on 12 July 2001. In the
House of Commons, he served on several
select committees: the
Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills from 2001 to 2015, the
Science and Technology Select Committee from 2003 to 2005, the Joint Committee on Privacy and Injunctions from 2011 to 2012, and the
Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee from 2017 to 2019. A written Parliamentary question by Farrelly, answered on 19 October 2009, became the subject of debate, as
The Guardian newspaper was prevented from reporting on it by a super-injunction. At the
2010 general election, Farrelly was returned to parliament with a majority of 1,552. On 4 November 2010, he was involved in a physical altercation with a man during an event at the Houses of Parliament Sports and Social club, which Farrelly later said he was acting in self-defence. Farrelly was re-elected in
2015 with a majority of 650. He supported
Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace
Jeremy Corbyn in the
2016 Labour Party leadership election. Farrelly was one of 47 Labour MPs who defied the
party whip to vote against the
European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017. The Act allowed
the government to invoke Article 50, triggering the beginning of the process of
British withdrawal from the European Union. Farrelly was one of 13 MPs to vote against triggering the
2017 general election. In the ensuing election, he retained his seat by just 30 votes. There was confusion in the constituency on polling day, where thousands of students were initially rejected due to errors with the electoral register. In November 2017, the
Mail on Sunday reported that Farrelly “launched a foul-mouthed tirade” at fellow Labour MP
James Frith. Labour said it would be launching an investigation after it received "a number of complaints". Farrelly denied the claims. In March 2018, Farrelly was accused of bullying by the former clerk of the
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee along with two other clerks regarding his conduct to them. An internal report into his conduct found his behaviour amounted to “an abuse of power or position, unfair treatment and undermining a competent worker by constant criticism”. A formal inquiry into the allegations was blocked by MPs and Farrelly called the accusations 'baseless'. In March 2018, the
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found Farrelly broke the House of Commons code of conduct by using Commons stationery during his election campaign, sending out 1000 canvassing letters in the run up to the election as if they had been sent by the House. Farrelly issued an apology and paid back the cost of the stationery. Farrelly stood down from Parliament at the
2019 United Kingdom general election. ==References==