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Josh MacAlister
OBE MP
Josh MacAlister OBE MP
	Official portrait, 2024
Member of Parliament ; for Whitehaven and Workington
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 4 July 2024
Preceded by	Constituency established
Majority	13,286 (31.7%)
Personal details
Political party	Labour
Website	joshforwestcumbria.co.uk

Joshua MacAlister^[1] OBE is a British Labour politician who has been Member of Parliament for Whitehaven and Workington since 2024.^[2]^[3]

Early life and education

MacAlister's father worked as a social worker.^[4]

MacAlister studied for, and received, an MA (Hons) in politics and social policy at the University of Edinburgh. MacAlister served as President of the Edinburgh University Students’ Association.^[5] In 2008, he unsuccessfully contested the Presidency of the National Union of Students Scotland.

MacAlister also studied for, and received, a masters degree in leadership in education at the University of Manchester.^[6]

Professional life

Teaching

MacAlister trained as a teacher through the Teach First Programme and went on to work as a teacher in Oldham.

Frontline

During his time as a teacher, MacAlister began to engage with young people with experience of the care system. These experiences led MacAlister to establish Frontline, a graduate social worker training programme modeled on Teach First, in 2013.^[4] The first cohort began their training the following year.^[6]

In 2019, the Department for Education provided Frontline with £45 million in funding.^[7]

Independent Review of Children's Social Care

In January 2021 MacAlister stepped down from his role at Frontline in order to chair an independent review of children's social care.^[7] MacAlister's appointment was criticized by some social work academics who questioned whether he could be impartial given that Frontline had received central government funding.^[7]

In June 2021, the review published its interim findings. In October 2021 the review published a second report in response to the feedback received on the interim report. The final report of the review was published in May 2022.^[8]

Awards

MacAlister was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the King's 2023 New Year's Honours for services to vulnerable children.^[9]

Member of Parliament

In June 2023, MacAlister was selected as the Labour Party's candidate for the newly created constituency of Whitehaven and Workington.^[10]

At the 2024 general election, MacAlister was elected as the Member of Parliament for Whitehaven and Workington. MacAlister was elected with 53% of the vote and a majority of over 13,000 votes.^[11]

Personal life

In 2023 MacAlister joined his local mountain rescue team.^[12] In July 2024, shortly after being elected as an MP, MacAlister was called out to a mountain rescue.^[13]

In 2024, PinkNews listed him as an out LGBTQ+ parliamentarian.^[14] He is married to educationalist Matthew Hood.^[15]