Mike Reader

Mike Reader is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Northampton South since 2024. He gained the seat from Andrew Lewer, a Conservative.

Early life and career
Reader studied civil engineering, graduating from Loughborough University in 2007 and then gaining an MSc at Coventry University in 2009. He worked at construction consultancy Pick Everard for 10 years. While there, he helped found Perfect Circle, a joint venture with Gleeds and Aecom which created 500 jobs in the East Midlands. He later told Construction News that his political ambitions were sparked while working for Pick Everard during the 2010–2015 Conservative-led coalition government: "I could see first-hand what public sector cuts meant on the ground, in terms of fixing schools with leaky roofs, repurposing hospitals and road and infrastructure maintenance".

In 2017, he then joined the Mace construction business, where he worked for over six years. At Mace during the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked on a NHS Nightingale project as the construction team's operations director.

Political career
Selected to contest the Northampton South seat in March 2023, Reader took a sabbatical from his job at Mace during the 2024 general election campaign; he said he expected to leave Mace if he was elected.