Introduction
Mathew Richard Allen Rodda (born 15 December 1966), is a British former journalist and civil servant, and a current Labour Party politician. He is the current Member of Parliament (MP) for the Reading East parliamentary constituency.
Early life
Matt Rodda was raised in Wallingford in South Oxfordshire, he attended the University of Sussex in the 1980s and trained as a journalist with Thomson. After graduating, he then went to work for the Coventry Telegraph and was also a journalist for The Independent newspaper, specialising in education news. He later became a civil servant in the Department for Education, and subsequently worked in the charity sector. In October 1999, he survived the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, an event to which he has attributed his desire to make a contribution to the community.
Politics
Local government and early parliamentary bids
Rodda was elected as a councillor for the Katesgrove Ward of Reading Borough Council in 2011, a position he currently retains. He stood for election in the East Surrey parliamentary constituency at the 2010 general election, and for the Reading East parliamentary constituency at the 2015 general election. In both cases, he was unsuccessful.
MP in the 2017 parliament
Rodda was elected for the Reading East constituency on 8 June 2017 at the 2017 snap election. He received 27,093 votes, beating the sitting MP, Rob Wilson of the Conservative Party, by a majority of 3,749.