Government and frontbench posts

He was appointed to the House of Commons Procedure Committee in June 2005 and, despite having only been elected six months earlier, on 10 November 2005, Gwynne was promoted to become a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to The Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, as Minister of State for Criminal Justice and Offender Management at the Home Office. Between July 2007 and June 2009, he served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP. During this period he was also elected chair of Labour Friends of Israel, and led delegations of British MPs to Israel and the Palestinian territories.^[2] In June 2009, he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, then Ed Balls.

In October 2010 Gwynne became a Shadow Transport Minister with responsibility for passenger transport. In the Opposition front bench reshuffle of October 2011 he was appointed to the Shadow Health team by Ed Miliband. He was reappointed in September 2015, following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as party leader.^[3]

Gwynne is involved in the campaign for justice for the victims and families of the tainted blood scandal, reaffirming his commitment to the cause on World AIDS Day 2016.^[4] He said in 2016: "This scandal saw thousands of people die, and thousands of families destroyed through the negligence of public bodies".^{[5][better source needed]}

Campaign activity

Gwynne took a leading role in organising Labour in the Oldham West and Royton by-election, occasioned by the death of long-serving MP and former junior minister Michael Meacher, in 2015.^[6][7] Gwynne said he hoped that "I can do the memory of Michael Meacher proud by helping to return a Labour MP for the seat".^[8] The Labour candidate Jim McMahon held the seat with a 10,000-plus majority and increased the party's share of the vote.

Andy Burnham chose Gwynne to run his mayoral campaign in Greater Manchester. After supporting Burnham's successful attempt to be selected as Labour's candidate over the favourite, Tony Lloyd, Gwynne remained as lead on Burnham's campaign in 2017.

Gwynne was asked to run Burnham's re-election campaign as Mayor in 2021.^[9] The campaign focussed on transport improvements, clean air and housing. The campaign saw Burnham increase his vote share and successfully win every ward in Greater Manchester.

He is a member and former Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.^[10] In 2018 Gwynne was named as a member of a Facebook group where individuals had shared anti-Semitic material. When a reporter confronted him about the group he stated that he had been added to it without his permission.^[11]

Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act

In 2010 Gwynne introduced the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act to restrict the activities of "vulture funds". Vulture funds buy the debts of poor countries, usually at a significant discount, and wait until the government has received relief from foreign creditors. As debtor countries have usually long defaulted on the loans, the vultures sue for the full debt – plus costs and interest – in courts around the world. This legislation prevents vulture funds from making exorbitant profits out of debt restructuring of heavily indebted poor countries, limiting how much vulture funds can sue for in UK courts to the amount they would have got if they had taken part in debt relief. The UK government has estimated that the Act will help to save 145 million pounds over six years.^[12] Similar legislation has now been passed in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

In 2016 Gwynne was invited to give a keynote speech on ways to tackle vulture funds and the damage they cause to developing nations at the 135th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva.^[13]

Appointment to Shadow Cabinet

Gwynne was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in October 2016, working in the opposition Cabinet Office team and becoming the spokesperson for the Shadow Cabinet in media appearances. In November 2016 he took a key role in helping to reform the proposed constituency boundaries in the Parliamentary Constituencies (Amendment) Bill drawn up by MP Pat Glass, and presented the Disability Equality Training (Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Drivers) Bill, which sought to provide support to disabled users of taxi services. The Bill received cross party support, but due to a filibuster by two Conservative MPs, Sheryll Murray and Tom Pursglove, it was not voted on.^[14]

In 2017 Gwynne was appointed to lead Labour's campaign for the Copeland by-election following the resignation of Jamie Reed.^[15] Gwynne focused the campaign on Conservatives plans to cut services at West Cumberland Hospital and to move some hospital facilities, including maternity services, to Carlisle, 80 miles away.^[16]

In February 2017 Gwynne was appointed as the Labour Party's Co-National Campaign Coordinator while retaining some of his Cabinet Office duties and his role as a spokesperson. He shared this post with Ian Lavery.^[17]

During the 2017 general election campaign Gwynne clashed with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Sky News, calling Johnson a "pillock" in a debate over Brexit policy.^[18][19]

He was re-elected in 2015 with a majority of 10,511. He was again re-elected in 2017 with an increased majority of 14,077, representing a 12.7% increase since the 2015 general election (63.5% share of the vote).^[20] Following the 2017 general election, Gwynne retained his role as the Labour Party's Co-National Campaign Coordinator, and was promoted to become Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, replacing Grahame Morris.^[21]

He was again re-elected in 2019 with a much reduced majority of 6,175, (50.06% share of the vote). Only 58.3% of the electorate turned out to vote in the Denton and Reddish constituency (ranked 53rd lowest turnout of 650 constituencies).^[22] In April 2020, one day after Keir Starmer was elected as the new Labour leader, Gwynne resigned from his position as Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary.^[23]

Return to frontbench

In the November 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle he returned to his former role as Shadow Minister for Public Health.^[24][25]

In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Social Care.^[26]