Sam Tarry

He also joined the Socialist Campaign Group of left-wing Labour MPs. He has used his position in Parliament to advocate for the Labour party to appeal to working class and northern communities, claiming in the 2020 Labour leadership election that Keir Starmer would be unsuited to the role of Leader, because of his "North London lawyer" image. Tarry subsequently endorsed Rebecca Long-Bailey in the contest.

In January 2020, Tarry faced renewed criticism over his stance on antisemitism, after he refused to condemn a motion, widely reported as antisemitic, passed at a branch of the Labour Party in Ilford South. The motion about the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest Jewish communal organisation in the UK, accused it of being "consistent in its support for the Conservative Party". At the meeting, members against the motion were reportedly called "agents of a foreign power" among other antisemitic tropes. Tarry responded by claiming that "there are conflicting accounts of what happened and what was said".

Tarry was selected as the Labour candidate for Ilford South on 22 October 2019. His selection as the Labour candidate for Ilford South was controversial as, local Redbridge Council leader Jas Athwal, considered the front-runner in the contest, was suspended from the party on the evening before members were due to vote. Tarry was subsequently selected in a vote a few weeks later, with Athwal excluded from the ballot.

He was elected as Ilford South MP in the 2019 general election with a majority of 24,101 (45.1%). The constituency was previously represented by Mike Gapes who left Labour to join Change UK in February 2019.

During the 2019 general election, Tarry sparked controversy for claiming that "people associated with the Labour Party have sought to exploit the issue [of antisemitism] just because they don’t agree with Jeremy Corbyn over an issue of foreign policy.", which was thought to allude to antisemitism claims in Labour being made maliciously by those who disagreed with Corbyn's foreign policy position on Israel.

He is a previous chairman of Young Labour and was also a community organiser for advocacy group Hope not Hate in Dagenham. Tarry served as the Labour Party councillor for Chadwell Heath ward on the Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council from 2010 to 2018 while living in Brighton . Prior to his election to Parliament, Tarry was the national political officer for the TSSA trade union, and the president of the left-wing think tank, Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS).

Samuel Peter Tarry (born August 1982) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South since the 2019 general election. A member of the Labour Party, he was the director of Jeremy Corbyn's 2016 Labour Party leadership campaign and currently serves as a national director of its successor organisation, Momentum.

Tarry was born in August 1982 in Westminster and grew up in Dagenham. He has commented that he attended Highlands Primary School, Redbridge and that his first job was as a cleaner at Redbridge College.