Local · Portsmouth

Who represents Portsmouth

Two Westminster constituencies, one city council, and a series of national bodies — this page sets out who each MP is and what they have actually done, plus which organisation genuinely holds the power over each local issue.

View shareable visual summariesThe issues themselvesSuggested Action Plan

This is not a scorecard or a ranking. It sets out, with sources, what each MP has actually done, what official Parliament data and TheyWorkForYou's published voting-stance summaries record, and what their own websites emphasise — so residents can judge for themselves. "Did not vote" is never presented as "absent" — see Parliament's own explanation on each profile. For the full, unfiltered voting record, use the official Parliament link on each profile — this page is a starting point, not a replacement for it.

Portsmouth North

Amanda Martin

Labour · MP since 4 July 2024 — the first time Portsmouth North has returned a Labour MP

2024 general election result

Amanda Martin (Labour)14,495 · 34.8% (+7.9)
Penny Mordaunt (Conservative)13,715 · 33% (-28.4)
Melvyn Todd (Reform UK)8,501 · 20.4% (+20.4)
Simon Dodd (Liberal Democrat)3,031 · 7.3% (-0.2)
Duncan Robinson (Green)1,851 · 4.5% (+1.6)
Electorate: 70,446Turnout: 59%Majority: 780

2019: Conservative hold (Penny Mordaunt), majority 15,780 (34.4pp), turnout 63.9% — Labour was a distant second on 27.0%. A 62-point swing in majority share over one Parliament.

Portsmouth North and Portsmouth South were both re-formed on their existing 2010–2024 boundaries in the 2023 boundary review — they did not actually change shape, only their internal reference ID did. The 2019 comparison below is therefore a genuine like-for-like result, not a notional estimate (Commons Library, electionresults.parliament.uk).

Current role(s)

  • •Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Education (since September 2025) — an unpaid, first-rung government role bound by collective responsibility, not a ministerial appointment.
  • •Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gibraltar (elected September 2024).
  • •No government, opposition or other official post recorded before this — a backbench MP for her first year.

Committees

  • •Education Committee, 21 Oct 2024 – 28 Oct 2025
  • •Armed Forces Commissioner Bill, 4–12 Dec 2024
  • •Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, 15 Jan – 11 Feb 2025
  • •Court of Referees, 27 Feb 2025 – present
  • •Planning and Infrastructure Bill, 24 Apr – 22 May 2025
  • •Football Governance Bill [HL], 14 May – 17 Jun 2025
  • •Unauthorised Entry to Football Matches Bill, 25 Jun 2025
  • •Norwich Livestock Market Bill [HL], 25 Jun 2025 – present
  • •General Cemetery Bill [HL], 16 Sep 2025 – present

Voting record

Important: what “did not vote” does and doesn't mean

“Members may not vote in every division of the House. This can be due to a number of reasons; The Speaker and deputies cannot vote because of the impartiality of the chair, and Sinn Féin Members have an absentionist policy. A Member may wish to abstain, or have a procedural reason for not voting. Members can be absent carrying out consitituency or ministerial business, or be unable to attend for other reasons.”

— UK Parliament's own wording, quoted directly from this MP's official voting page. A non-vote is not evidence of absence or of failing to do the job.

483 divisionsrecorded on Parliament's official register, to 8 July 2026 (Division 53 of this Parliament).

UK Stat Pack's own grouping of TheyWorkForYou's stance summaries — not an official Parliament category: Parliament's own voting pages carry no policy-area taxonomy at all; the themes below are TheyWorkForYou's independent analysis, grouped here for readability.
Overall pattern: TheyWorkForYou records 100% alignment with the Labour Party position across her most recent 304 votes, and no vote against the party majority — these are Labour-government positions she has supported, not personal breaks from the party line.
Housing: Consistently voted for more rights for tenants and regulation on landlords — relevant to a constituency with a large private-rented sector.
Environment: Consistently voted for financial incentives for low-carbon electricity, increasing the windfall tax on oil and gas, and measures to prevent climate change.
Welfare — a genuinely mixed record worth presenting in full: Voted for scrapping the two-child benefit limit (expands support for larger low-income families), but also voted for reducing the health-related top-up for new Universal Credit claims (a welfare reduction) — both real, recorded votes, worth reading together rather than in isolation.
Tax: Voted for increases to income tax (in real terms), employer National Insurance, capital gains tax and VAT on private school fees — standard Labour Budget positions, not Portsmouth-specific.

Things personally done or driven

  • •Wrote to the Leader of Portsmouth City Council and raised it in Parliament that the council's public HMO register was 15 months out of date, and cited council data implying a 12-year wait for a four-bedroom council home (June 2025).
  • •Sat on five Public Bill Committees plus two Private Bill committees, most with high attendance.

Welcomed / publicised (national decisions, not locally originated)

  • •Publicised the government's national Waste Crime Action Plan and £45m Environment Agency funding on fly-tipping, framed around Portsmouth constituents' experience.
  • •Backed, jointly with Stephen Morgan MP, Portsmouth's bid for UK City of Culture 2029.
  • •Welcomed up to £3,994,500 of national Skills Bootcamps funding reaching City of Portsmouth College, and separate national schools-buildings funding reaching Portsmouth North schools.

What their own website emphasises

Her site (amandamartin.org.uk) frames three personal pledges — Champion, Visible, Trust — with a strong personal-connection narrative. Content leans toward republishing central government announcements with a local quote attached. The HMO register letter is the strongest example of substantive, locally-initiated content.

Not yet actioned, on current evidence

  • •No Portsmouth North-specific campaign found yet, personally led by her, on policing, NHS waiting times or targeted cost-of-living support.
  • •The City of Culture bid and skills/schools funding are framed as "welcomed", not "secured by Amanda Martin" — worth reading carefully.

Contact

  • Parliamentary office: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
  • Email: [email protected]
  • No constituency office is listed on their official parliamentary contact record — only the Westminster office.
Official Parliament profile →Full official voting record →Their own website →
Sources (5) · last verified 2026-08-26
Portsmouth South

Stephen Morgan

Labour · MP since 8 June 2017 (re-elected 2019 and 2024)

2024 general election result

Stephen Morgan (Labour)18,857 · 48.4% (-0.2)
Mark Zimmer (Reform UK)5,702 · 14.6% (+12.6)
Signe Biddle (Conservative)5,643 · 14.5% (-22.8)
Charlie Murphy (Liberal Democrat)4,886 · 12.6% (+1.1)
Elliott Lee (Green)3,107 · 8% (+8)
Jacob Short (Portsmouth Independent Party)733 · 1.9% (+1.9)
Electorate: 73,711Turnout: 52.8%Majority: 13,155

2019: Labour hold, majority 5,363 (11.3pp), turnout 63.9% — Morgan 48.6% to the Conservatives' 37.3%.

Portsmouth North and Portsmouth South were both re-formed on their existing 2010–2024 boundaries in the 2023 boundary review — they did not actually change shape, only their internal reference ID did. The 2019 comparison below is therefore a genuine like-for-like result, not a notional estimate (Commons Library, electionresults.parliament.uk).

Current role(s)

  • •Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Defra — farming, food, marine and fisheries (since 22 July 2026).
  • •Previously: Minister of State, Defra (12 Jun – 22 Jul 2026); Government Whip / Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury (7 Sep 2025 – 12 Jun 2026); Parliamentary Under-Secretary, DfE — early education (9 Jul 2024 – 7 Sep 2025).
  • •Pre-government (Opposition): Shadow Minister for Local Government/Communities (2019–20); Shadow Defence Minister (2020–21); Shadow Education Minister (2021–23); Shadow Transport Minister (2023–24).

Committees

  • •Public Accounts Committee, 20 Nov 2017 – 6 Nov 2019 — inquiries included Crossrail, NHS waiting times, housing-market planning and Brexit consultancy costs.
  • •Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill 2021, Feb–Apr 2021
  • •Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, 15 Jan – 11 Feb 2025
  • •Courts and Tribunals Bill, 18 Mar – 28 Apr 2026

Voting record

Important: what “did not vote” does and doesn't mean

“Members may not vote in every division of the House. This can be due to a number of reasons; The Speaker and deputies cannot vote because of the impartiality of the chair, and Sinn Féin Members have an absentionist policy. A Member may wish to abstain, or have a procedural reason for not voting. Members can be absent carrying out consitituency or ministerial business, or be unable to attend for other reasons.”

— UK Parliament's own wording, quoted directly from this MP's official voting page. A non-vote is not evidence of absence or of failing to do the job.

1,696 divisionsrecorded on Parliament's official register, to 15 July 2026 (Division 60 of this Parliament; total spans back to 2017).

UK Stat Pack's own grouping of TheyWorkForYou's stance summaries — not an official Parliament category: As with Portsmouth North, Parliament's own voting pages carry no policy-area taxonomy — these groupings are TheyWorkForYou's independent analysis.
Environment / water: Consistently voted for improving environmental water quality — consistent with his long-running public campaigning on Southern Water sewage discharges since at least 2022.
Welfare — same mixed pattern as his Portsmouth North colleague: Voted with the government (not among the 49 Labour MPs who rebelled) on the July 2025 Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, which reduced a health-related top-up for new claimants — while also having voted, on the record, for scrapping the two-child benefit limit.
Housing: Consistently voted for more rights for tenants and regulation on landlords, and for landlords bearing the cost of building-safety works.
Immigration: Almost always voted against a stricter asylum system and against stronger enforcement of immigration rules — a UK-wide Home Office voting pattern, not a Portsmouth-specific one.

Things personally done or driven

  • •A sustained, multi-year public campaign against Southern Water storm-overflow discharges — public statements since at least August 2022, public meetings, and reported engagement with the Environment Agency over Southsea East's "poor" bathing-water classification.
  • •Hosted public meetings on rising local fly-tipping, citing a specific example of commercial waste dumped behind North End businesses.
  • •Sat on the Public Accounts Committee for two years, plus three further bill committees since.

Welcomed / publicised (national decisions, not locally originated)

  • •Welcomed the government's national Waste Crime Action Plan (March 2026).
  • •His own site cites figures for Naval Base investment and constituency funding (including a stated £20m for Landport and £62m in council funding over the parliament) that appear in his own press releases rather than an independently verifiable government announcement.

What their own website emphasises

His site (stephenmorgan.org.uk) is built around constituency accessibility — a physical high-street constituency office with published hours. His 2026 "Report Back" annual report is hope-framed but states no hard figures in the report text itself; specific pound amounts appear only in separate press releases.

Not yet actioned, on current evidence

  • •Despite years of sewage/water-quality campaigning as a backbencher, none of his ministerial roles since July 2024 have carried the water-regulation brief itself.
  • •No evidence found of him commenting publicly on the UTC Portsmouth–BAE Systems apprenticeship pipeline, despite HM Naval Base Portsmouth sitting inside his own constituency.

Contact

  • Parliamentary office: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Constituency office: 72 Albert Road, Southsea, Portsmouth, PO5 2SL
  • Office hours: Monday–Thursday, 10:00–11:30 and 14:00–15:45
Official Parliament profile →Full official voting record →Their own website →
Sources (5) · last verified 2026-08-26
Accountability

Who can actually change this?

One of the most common frustrations in local politics is raising an issue with the wrong body — often the council, because it feels nearest — when the decisive legal power sits somewhere else entirely. This is a plain guide to who genuinely holds the lever on each recurring Portsmouth issue.

Responsibilities in UK local government are genuinely shared and often overlap — this is a guide to where the most decisive lever sits, not a claim that one body is solely accountable. Where responsibility is truly split (housing being the clearest example), this says so rather than picking a single body for the sake of a tidy answer.

Sewage discharges & bathing water quality

Utility company
Primary control
Southern Water
Also involved
  • •Environment Agency — Sets and enforces discharge permits, monitors bathing water, prosecutes breaches
  • •Ofwat — Economic regulator — sets what the company may spend and charge, and levies performance penalties
  • •UK Government (Defra) — Sets the legal framework and enforcement powers
  • •Portsmouth City Council — Limited: planning and highway drainage decisions that affect surface-water load
Where blame is often misdirected

Sewage discharges are frequently raised with the city council, which does not own, operate or regulate the sewer network and cannot stop a discharge. The council's genuine levers are narrow (planning and drainage); the decisive ones sit with Southern Water and its regulators.

What a resident can actually do

Report a specific discharge or pollution incident to the Environment Agency's 24-hour incident line; raise systemic concerns with Ofwat and with your MP, who can question Defra ministers directly.

Sewage evidence & the £170m programme →

Fly-tipping & waste dumping

Council
Primary control
Portsmouth City Council
Also involved
  • •Environment Agency — Leads on large-scale/organised waste crime rather than individual incidents
  • •UK Government (Defra) — Sets penalty levels and the waste-carrier licensing regime (reform due 2027)
  • •Hampshire & IoW Constabulary — Involved where vehicle seizure or associated criminality arises
Where blame is often misdirected

This is one of the issues where the council genuinely is the primary responsible body — but its enforcement capacity is the binding constraint (17 fixed penalty notices against 1,092 recorded incidents in a single year), not its willingness. Bigger fines do not, by themselves, add enforcement officers.

What a resident can actually do

Report incidents directly to Portsmouth City Council (this also builds the evidence base for hotspot enforcement); check any waste carrier you pay against the free national register before handing over waste.

Fly-tipping root-cause evidence →

GP access, dentistry & hospital waiting times

NHS
Primary control
NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight (Integrated Care Board)
Also involved
  • •Individual GP practices and dental providers — Independent contractors, not directly council- or NHS-managed staff
  • •Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust — Runs Queen Alexandra Hospital and its waiting lists
  • •UK Government (DHSC) — Sets national funding, workforce planning and the NHS contract framework
  • •Portsmouth City Council — Public health functions and adult social care — which affect hospital discharge, but not waiting lists directly
Where blame is often misdirected

Queen Alexandra Hospital serves a catchment far larger than Portsmouth (roughly 675,000 people across Portsmouth, Havant, Fareham, Gosport and the Isle of Wight). Its activity figures should never be read as a measure of Portsmouth residents' demand alone.

What a resident can actually do

Formal complaints go to the provider first, then the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman; systemic concerns are genuinely MP territory, since funding and workforce policy are national.

Crime, antisocial behaviour & policing priorities

Police
Primary control
Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary
Also involved
  • •Police and Crime Commissioner — Sets the local policing plan and budget, holds the Chief Constable to account
  • •Home Office — National policing funding, legislation and sentencing framework
  • •Portsmouth City Council — Community safety partnership duties, CCTV, licensing, ASB civil powers
Where blame is often misdirected

Sentencing is set nationally by Parliament and applied by independent courts — neither the council nor the local force controls it, so a council motion calling for tougher sentences is a lobbying act, not an operational decision.

What a resident can actually do

Report crime to the police (101/999 as appropriate); raise policing priorities and resourcing with the Police and Crime Commissioner, who is directly elected for exactly this purpose.

Crime claims tested against data →

Housing — availability, affordability and standards

Multiple bodies
Primary control
Multiple bodies — this one genuinely is split
Also involved
  • •Portsmouth City Council — Council housing stock, homelessness duty, planning decisions, HMO licensing, private-rented enforcement
  • •UK Government (MHCLG) — National planning policy, housing finance, Right to Buy rules, private-rental legislation
  • •Homes England — Grant funding that determines whether affordable schemes are viable
  • •Private developers and landlords — Actually build and let the great majority of homes
  • •DWP — Housing benefit / Universal Credit housing element — sets what low-income renters can afford
Where blame is often misdirected

Housing is the clearest case where no single body can fix the problem. The council can grant permission but cannot compel building; government sets the funding but does not build; developers build but respond to viability. Blaming any one of them alone misdescribes how the system works.

What a resident can actually do

Disrepair and licensing issues in a private tenancy are council enforcement matters; affordability and benefit levels are national policy, and therefore MP matters.

Local government reorganisation (the proposed "super council")

MP / Westminster
Primary control
UK Government (MHCLG)
Also involved
  • •Portsmouth City Council — Can respond, lobby and — as it has done — seek judicial review, but cannot veto
  • •Neighbouring authorities — Gosport, Fareham and Havant are proposed merger partners
Where blame is often misdirected

The decision on whether Portsmouth City Council continues to exist in its current form is a central government one. The council's judicial review challenges the process, not the principle — courts assess lawfulness, not whether a merger is a good idea.

What a resident can actually do

Respond to any government consultation directly, and raise it with your MP — this is squarely a Westminster decision.

Not sure which constituency you're in? Postcodes north of roughly Fratton fall in Portsmouth North; Southsea, Old Portsmouth and the city centre are in Portsmouth South — check your exact constituency and contact your MP here.

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