Simon Lightwood is the Labour and Co-operative MP for Wakefield and Rothwell and Minister for Roads and Buses at the Department for Transport. Born in South Shields in December 1980, he moved to Wakefield in the late 1990s to study theatre acting at Bretton Hall College, and has lived in the city for over 25 years. A transport minister who trained as a theatre actor is one of the more unusual trajectories in government.

His pre Parliament career was in the NHS: he was Head of Communications for the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, ran communications for a major trust rather than simply "worked in the NHS", and describes himself as "a proud NHS worker". He was also a Labour councillor with cabinet responsibility for public health.

He won the Wakefield by-election on 23 June 2022 with 47.9 percent of the vote and a majority of 4,925, after the resignation and conviction of Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan for sexual assault of a 15 year old boy. He was re-elected for Wakefield and Rothwell in 2024 with 17,773 votes and a majority of 9,346 (23.1 percent).

Appointed Shadow Minister for Local Transport in 2022, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Local Transport in July 2024 and, in the September 2025 reshuffle, was reappointed with an expanded brief as Minister for Roads and Buses, now covering both roads and bus services. His campaigns, carried from his first election into office, include the Bus Services Bill, NHS dentistry access, and antisocial behaviour.

Lightwood's strengths include 25 years in Wakefield giving deep local roots, Head of Communications at an NHS trust, a public health council cabinet role, winning both a by-election and a general election, the Roads and Buses brief with an expanding portfolio, the Bus Services Bill as a specific legislative vehicle, and a 23.1 percent majority. His weaknesses include no major legislative achievement yet from ministerial office, the Bus Services Bill not yet delivering visible improvement, the roads brief exposing him to pothole and maintenance complaints, and the permanent challenge that transport ministers are judged by whether services improve, not by speeches about improvement. At 45, with the theatre acting background, the NHS communications career and the Roads and Buses brief, he has a distinctively non political trajectory. Whether the Bus Services Bill and the roads portfolio produce visible improvement in Wakefield and nationally will determine whether the by-election repairman becomes a consequential transport minister.