Matt Rodda is‌ ‌the Labour‌ MP‌ ‌for‌ Reading East, having‌ ‌first‌ ‌been‌ ‌elected‌ ‌to‌ ‌Parliament‌ ‌in‌ 2017, he was re-elected in 2019 with a majority ‌of 5,924‌.‌
Reading East is the more Labour leaning of the two Reading seats. An ethnically diverse constituency, the seat also has a high student population from Reading University. The Thames Valley Business Park containing a number of well known technology companies is found within this seat. Reading East was held by the Conservatives between 2005 and 2017, but the seat has bucked the national trend in recent years, and switched to Labour.
Rodda was‌ ‌appointed‌ ‌as the Shadow Minister for Pensions‌ ‌in‌ January 2021. He previously served as Shadow Minister for Buses and Shadow Minister for Local Transport.
Born‌ ‌in 1966, Matt Rodda grew up in Wallingford, Oxfordshire. He attended Wallingford School before studying history at the University of Sussex.
Rodda then trained as a journalist for the Wokingham Times before moving on to the Coventry Evening Telegraph, where he became education correspondent. He left journalism in 1998 to become a writer for David Blunkett, who was then education secretary in the Labour government.
He also worked‌ as a journalist for the Independent newspaper and as a civil servant in the Department of education, ‌before‌ ‌being‌ ‌elected‌ ‌to‌ Parliament.‌
He supported Emily Thornberry in the 2020 Labour leadership election.
Rodda was elected to Reading Council for for the town’s Katesgrove ward between 2011 and 2018. He is married with two children.
Mr Rodda has detailed how he was not expecting to win his Reading East whe he was elected in the 2017 snap General Election.
He is said to have good relationship with the Conservative MP for nearby Henley, John Howell, who he describes as a ‘really nice guy’.
Rodda is a survivor of the 1999 Ladbroke Grove rail crash, which claimed 31 lives.  Talking to the Henley Standard, Rodda said he would not have survived the crash if he had been sitting in his normal first class seat towards the front of his train. However he had been forced to stand in the buffet car due to overcrowding, and therefore avoided the worst impact of the crash.
Email – Â matt.rodda.mp@parliament.uk
Website‌ ‌–‌ ‌ ‌ www.mattrodda.net
Twitter‌ ‌–‌ ‌ ‌ @MattRodda
facebook.com/matt4readingeast
