Time as the Member of Parliament
for Stoke-on-Trent Central
Please note that a General Election has been called for Thursday 4th July. Jo Gideon will not be seeking re-election. Therefore, Jo will cease to be the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central from Thursday 30th May. This page will be updated in due course with more information about Jo’s time as the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central.
Jo represented Stoke-on-Trent Central as their Member of Parliament from 2019-24.
Initially a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Business Department (BEIS), Jo stood down to spearhead a campaign on button battery safety following the tragic death of toddler Harper-Lee Fanthorpe and worked closely with government, industry and charities to improve awareness and product safety.
She was on the influential 1922 Executive, and the Public Administration & Constitutional Affairs Committee, a Select Committee that scrutinized a wide range of processes in Cabinet Office and the Civil Service.
Jo has led strategic groups on a wide range of topics during her time in parliament. She has chaired All-Party Parliamentary Groups on the National Food Strategy, Ceramics, Social Enterprise and Youth Affairs and has served as vice-chair on Groups including Entrepreneurship, Whistleblowing, the BBC, Charities and Volunteering, Women and Enterprise, Obesity, and Germany.
During her time as the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central, Jo championed local manufacturers, small businesses and charities, as well as the voice of young people at Westminster.
She has campaigned to create a healthier society, to grow community-based assets and local access to banking and has hosted Summits on the food system from field to fork and the three pillars of sustainability.
There have been many highlights in my time in Parliament, but these are just a few:
Serving in government during the pandemic
As Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State in BEIS – the business department – I experienced the complex operation during the height of the Covid pandemic, including the planning of lockdowns, the furlough scheme, the manufacture of vaccines as well as the development of energy policy.
Leading the campaign for Button Battery safety
After the tragic death of toddler Harper-Lee Fanthorpe in my constituency, I stood down from my government role to lobby for greater safety standards. I set up a charity, the Harper-Lee Foundation, and worked with Harper’s mum, the Child Accident Prevention Trust and industry, retail, clinicians and regulators to effect change.
Over three years work with the business department and across four workstreams significant progress has been made, with more data gathered, new product safety features developed by manufacturers, Amazon introducing online safety guidance and the Office for Product Safety and Standards committed to issuing an upgraded product standard by Spring 2025.
Preventing a major environmental catastrophe
In 2021 I secured over £10 million to clear a very large industrial site in the centre of Stoke-on-Trent of 23,000 tonnes of combustible industrial waste.
The site was located next to a strategic road, the mainline rail track, a tributary of the river Trent and a gas line, so a fire would have had catastrophic impact.
The waste had been degrading since 2014, but funding had not been secured to clear it. I called on the help of the Prime Minister to resolve the situation.
Asking Prime Minister’s Questions
The opportunity to ask a question at PMQs is rare (it’s a lottery), so I made the most of those precious moments to invite the Prime Minister to a virtual tour of Stoke-on-Trent during Covid, to call for more investment.
I asked for meetings with the Prime Minister with Dave Fishwick to discuss ‘Bank of Dave’ style community banking, to thank Harper-Lee’s mum for the button battery campaign and constituent Claire Massey to call for a Whistleblowers Bill and ensure good practice within the insurance industry.
Championing causes through All-Party Parliamentary Groups
During my time at Westminster, I championed a wide range of causes, including social enterprise, women and enterprise, entrepreneurship, charities and volunteering, left-behind neighbourhoods and youth, as well as specific interests such as food and obesity, ceramics, the BBC and Germany.
I hosted Summits on our food system, from field to fork, and on the three pillars of sustainability.
My work on age and ageing started with the first recordings of my Nothing but a Number Podcast.
Newcomer MP of the Year 2023
I was delighted to have won the Patchwork Foundation’s Newcomer MP of the year award last December, as I had been nominated by organisations and individuals in my constituency for my work with young people and disadvantaged groups.
My regular charity roundtable brought together up new members each time to become a network of over 60 charities and community groups to identify common purpose and support.
Broadening my horizons
From detonating landmines in Lebanon to visiting Yad Vashem in Jerusalem or appreciating Oman’s role in the Middle East, from seeing the amazing Carbon Capture & Storage facility in Norway or discussing bilateral issues with German politicians in Villa La Collina, or considering the democratic deficit of the British Overseas Territories in Bermuda, I have been privileged to witness the importance of Britain’s role in the world and a appreciate the bigger context for the decisions made at Westminster.