Alex Sobel

Alexander David Sobel (born 1975) is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds Central and Headingley since 8 June 2017. A graduate of the University of Leeds, Sobel worked in the social enterprise sector, including leading Social Enterprise Yorkshire from, before entering politics as a Leeds City Councillor where he advanced initiatives on air pollution and climate change.

In Parliament, Sobel has held several opposition frontbench roles, including Shadow Minister for Tourism and Heritage from 2020, Shadow Minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport until 2021, and Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2021 to 2023, with a focus on nature recovery and domestic environment policy. He introduced the Climate and Nature Bill as a private member's bill to establish legally binding targets for emissions reduction and nature restoration, reflecting his emphasis on science-led environmental strategies. Sobel received the Nature 2030 Award in 2024 for contributions to habitats, biodiversity, and green spaces.

Alex Sobel's parents immigrated to the United Kingdom from Israel in 1971, settling in Leeds where they established their family. Sobel was born in 1975 in the Hyde Park area of Leeds. His family, of Jewish heritage, has deep roots affected by the Holocaust, with many relatives murdered during the Shoah; Sobel has recounted personal stories from his great-aunt about family members in the Łódź ghetto, including his great-grandfather Zygmunt, great-grandmother Guta, and their son Karol, born in 1939.

Alex Sobel identifies as Jewish, with ancestral ties to Eastern European Jewish communities in Lithuania and Poland, where relatives on both his mother's and father's sides were active in the Bund, a Jewish socialist movement. His parents immigrated from Israel to the United Kingdom in 1971, settling in Leeds where Sobel was born on 26 April 1975; his father had served in the Israeli military.

This heritage informs Sobel's engagement with Jewish communal issues, including advocacy for Holocaust education and recognition of British Jewish contributions, while he positions himself within a tradition of Jewish left-wing activism rooted in his family's Bundist background.