| Office: | Member of Parliament for Whitehaven and Workington |
| Term Start: | 4 July 2024 |
| Predecessor: | Constituency established |
| Party: | Labour |
| Majority: | 13,286 (31.7%) |
Joshua MacAlister[1] is a British Labour politician who has been Member of Parliament for Whitehaven and Workington since 2024.[2] [3]
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]
MacAlister trained as a teacher through the Teach First Programme and went on to work as a teacher in Oldham.
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. The first cohort began their training the following year.
In 2019, the Department for Education provided Frontline with £45 million in funding.[7]
In January 2021 MacAlister stepped down from his role at Frontline in order to chair an independent review of children's social care. 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.
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]
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]
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]
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]