Oliver Ryan

Oliver David Ryan (born 22 April 1995) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament for Burnley since 2024.

Early life Oliver David Ryan was born on 22 April 1995 in Manchester to a single mother. He is the oldest of four children, and grew up near Oldham and Ashton-Under-Lyne. Ryan graduated from the University of Manchester with a BA (Hons) in Modern History with Politics in 2016 before obtaining a postgraduate Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) in Law from the University of Law. He was elected as the Labour Party councillor for Audenshaw ward in the 2014 Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council election at the age of 19. He retained his seat in the 2018 and 2022 elections. Ryan stood down ahead of the 2023 election. Ryan was then elected as the Labour and Co-operative MP for Burnley in the 2024 election with a majority of 3,420 votes, defeating the incumbent Antony Higginbotham of the Conservative Party. In February 2025, Ryan apologised for comments made in a WhatsApp chat group, after Andrew Gwynne was sacked as a minister and was suspended from the Labour Party, over messages he sent to the same group. Ryan was subsequently also suspended from the Labour parliamentary party. In September 2025, Ryan's membership of the parliamentary Labour Party was reinstated.

On 20 May 2026, he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Department of Health and Social Care.

Electoral performance House of Commons Election box begin|title=General election 2024: Burnley