Matt Rodda

Matthew Richard Allen Rodda (born 28 December 1966) is a British Labour Party politician and former journalist and civil servant who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Reading Central since 2024. He previously represented Reading East from 2017 until the constituency was abolished in 2024.

Early life and career
Matthew Rodda was born on 28 December 1966 and raised in Wallingford in South Oxfordshire. He attended the University of Sussex in the 1980s and trained as a journalist with Thomson.

After graduating, he worked for the Coventry Telegraph and was also a journalist for The Independent newspaper, specialising in education news.

He later became a civil servant in the Department for Education, and subsequently worked in the charity sector and for the Higher Education Academy.

In October 1999, he survived the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, an event to which he has attributed his desire to make a contribution to the community.

Parliamentary career
Rodda stood as the Labour candidate in East Surrey at the 2010 general election, coming third with 9% of the vote behind the Conservative candidate Sam Gyimah and the Liberal Democrat candidate.

At the 2015 general election, Rodda stood in Reading East, coming second with 33.1% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MP Rob Wilson.

Rodda was elected to Parliament as MP for Reading East at the snap 2017 general election with 49% of the vote and a majority of 3,749.

In January 2018, Rodda was promoted to a frontbench position in a Shadow Cabinet mini-shuffle, becoming the Shadow Minister for Local Transport.

At the 2019 general election, Rodda was re-elected as MP for Reading East with a decreased vote share of 48.5% and an increased majority of 5,924.

Rodda nominated Emily Thornberry in the 2020 Labour leadership election.

In the first Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer, Rodda was appointed Shadow Minister for Buses.

In January 2021, Rodda was appointed Shadow Minister for Pensions after Jack Dromey was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet Office after Helen Hayes resigned to abstain on the Brexit Bill. Rodda was replaced as Shadow Minister for Buses by Sam Tarry. In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed Shadow Minister for AI and Intellectual Property.

Prior to the 2024 general election, Rodda's constituency of Reading East was abolished, and replaced with Reading Central. In June 2024, Rodda was selected as the Labour candidate for Reading Central at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 General Election, Matt Rodda was subsequently re-elected as an MP for Reading Central.