At the
2012 Cardiff South and Penarth by-election, Doughty was elected to Parliament as MP for
Cardiff South and Penarth with 47.3% of the vote and a majority of 5,334. Doughty made his
maiden speech in the House of Commons on 28 November 2012. In January 2013, Doughty was appointed to the Labour Shadow Treasury team as an aide to
Rachel Reeves, the
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
2015 Parliament Doughty was re-elected as MP for Cardiff South and Penarth at the
2015 general election with a decreased vote share of 42.8% and an increased majority of 7,453. Following
Iain Wright's election as the
Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee chair, Doughty succeed him in the Shadow BIS team as the Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry in a June 2015 mini-reshuffle. In October 2015, he was moved to a position as a Shadow Foreign Office Minister with responsibility for Africa, South Asia and International Organisations, under
Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn. In December 2015 Doughty supported air strikes against Syria, a decision for which he was criticised by many of his constituents and political activists via social media. He called the police to deal with the "personal threats" he had received. He supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace
Jeremy Corbyn in the
2016 Labour Party leadership election.
Resignation from frontbench In January 2016, Doughty announced that he had resigned as a shadow Foreign Minister on the live
Daily Politics programme, saying that he supported the sacked
Pat McFadden's views on terrorism and accusing members of the Labour leadership team of lying about the reasons for McFadden's sacking. According to McFadden, he was sacked for comments in the debate on the
Paris bombings which condemned "the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the west do". Doughty's appearance on
Daily Politics became contentious after it emerged that
Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC's political editor, had arranged for Doughty to make his public announcement on the programme just before
Prime Minister's Questions. According to Labour's spokesman, it was an "unacceptable breach of the BBC's role and statutory obligations. By the BBC's own account, BBC journalists and presenters proposed and secured the resignation of a shadow minister on air ... apparently to ensure maximum news and political impact." The Labour Party's Director of Communications,
Seumas Milne, made a formal complaint to the BBC. The BBC's head of live political programmes,
Robbie Gibb, wrote to Milne: "Neither the programme production team, nor Laura, played any part in his decision to resign. As you know it is a long standing tradition that political programmes on the BBC, along with all other news outlets, seek to break stories. It is true that we seek to make maximum impact with our journalism which is entirely consistent with the BBC's editorial guidelines and values." Doughty said on Twitter that he had resigned "shortly before I did the interview so there was not time for spin doctors to start smearing me".
2019 Parliament He was again re-elected at the
2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 54.1% and a decreased majority of 12,737. Doughty endorsed
Keir Starmer in his successful campaign in the
2020 Labour Party leadership election. Starmer appointed Doughty Shadow Minister for the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office and
Department for International Development, responsible for Africa and international development. In May 2021, Doughty apologised for asking a constituent to provide him with
diazepam, a
Class C-controlled drug, without a prescription for anxiety ahead of a flight in 2019.
South Wales Police did not take further action because they determined that the allegation he possessed a controlled substance "cannot be proved in these circumstances". The
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards ruled in October 2021 that he had not broken the MPs' code of conduct. They announced in December 2022 that they stood by their original decision.
Labour in government Doughty was again re-elected at the
2024 general election with a decreased vote share of 44.5% and a decreased majority of 11,767. Shortly after he was appointed
Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories in the
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. As
Foreign Office Minister Stephen has criticised the government of
Georgia over its crackdown on free speech and
LGBT rights, saying that it is 'clear that the direction of the
Georgian Dream party risks undermining freedom of expression and assembly and further discriminating against and stigmatising Georgia's LGBT+ community, including through the introduction of the
Law on Family Values', and that he has raised 'concerns over recent legislative changes' with the
Georgian Foreign Minister Darchiashvili. Doughty condemned the
mass killings and atrocities committed by the
Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during their capture of
El Fasher,
Sudan, in late October 2025. He described the reports of civilian executions and torture as "horrifying and deeply alarming". ==Personal life==