23 Facts About Toby Perkins

Toby Perkins served as Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs from 2023 until 2024.

Toby Perkins previously served as Shadow Minister for Apprentices and Lifelong Learning from April 2020 to September 2023 and was Shadow Minister for Small Business under Ed Miliband and Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces under Jeremy Corbyn.

Matthew Perkins was born on 12 August 1970 in Reading.

Toby Perkins is the son of V F Perkins and Tessa Pudney.

Toby Perkins attended Trinity Catholic School in Leamington Spa, and Silverdale Comprehensive School in Sheffield.

Toby Perkins worked in the private sector from 1987 until elected to Parliament in 2010.

Toby Perkins was in IT Sales as a consultant and Regional Manager for the Prime Time Recruitment organisation, and subsequently set up a rugby product business.

Toby Perkins was a councillor for Rother Ward on Chesterfield Borough Council from 2003 to 2011.

Under Ed Miliband, Toby Perkins became the first of the 2010 intake of new members to speak from the front bench when becoming a Shadow Education Minister in September 2010 under Andy Burnham.

Toby Perkins was moved into the Shadow Business team as Shadow Minister for Enterprise and Small Business in 2011, under Chuka Umunna.

Toby Perkins had previously run Labour's by-election campaign in Wythenshawe and Sale East.

Toby Perkins worked on by-election campaigns in Corby, Bradford West and Eastleigh.

Toby Perkins belongs to Labour Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.

Toby Perkins is the current chair of the All Party Parliamentary Pub Group, the All Party Parliamentary group on Tennis and was chair of the Labour Friends of the Forces from January 2016 to October 2020.

In Parliament Toby Perkins has led Opposition Day debates for Labour on pub company regulation, Sunday trading laws for the Olympics, and on the Deregulation Bill alongside Chi Onwurah.

Toby Perkins has secured adjournment debates against Derbyshire fire station closures, which led to a U-turn on plans to close 18 Derbyshire fire stations, and against the sale of legal highs.

Toby Perkins proposed in 2016, via a 10-minute private members' bill, that "God Save the Queen" should cease to be the anthem used by English teams at international sporting fixtures.

Toby Perkins was Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn.

Toby Perkins then supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.

Toby Perkins nominated Keir Starmer in the 2020 Labour Party leadership contest.

Toby Perkins campaigned for the UK to remain a member of the European Union ahead of the EU Referendum on 23 June 2016.

In October 2016, Toby Perkins supported the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni civil war against the Shia Houthis.

Toby Perkins was married in 1996 and separated in 2018, after it was revealed he had been having an affair with his aide, Amanda Collumbine, whom he has lived with in Chesterfield, Derbyshire since January 2019.