Richard Quigley was elected Labour and Co-operative MP for Isle of Wight West on 4 July 2024 with 13,240 votes (38.5 percent) and a majority of 3,177, the first Labour MP in the Isle of Wight's history and the first non-Conservative on the Island in 26 years, since Liberal Democrat Peter Brand left in 2001.

Born in August 1971 and raised in Retford, Nottinghamshire, he studied manufacturing systems engineering at Coventry University and worked at Britvic Soft Drinks before moving to the Isle of Wight in 2003 and opening Corries Cabin, a fish and chip shop on Cowes High Street. He is not a recent arrival nor simply a chip-shop owner: an engineering graduate with a corporate career who has lived on the Island for over 22 years. He had also stood here before, taking 18,078 votes (24.5 percent) as Labour's candidate for the whole Isle of Wight in 2019.

He was the only Labour councillor on the entire Isle of Wight Council, elected for Cowes North in 2021 as the sole Labour voice in the chamber. He served as the council's SEND councillor, working to improve special educational needs services, and campaigned for the council to adopt Community Wealth Building. His community work is extensive: trustee of Pan Together, the Footprint Trust and the Isle of Wight Foodbank, formerly of North Medina Community Trust, and a former governor of Northwood Primary School. A councillor who was also a food bank trustee understands both the policy structures and the human consequences.

His current campaigns include the impact of the Emissions Trading Scheme on ferry fares, digital poverty, dentistry access, and the lack of specialist sexual assault support on the Island. He sits on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

Quigley's strengths include 22 years of Island residence, a manufacturing engineering degree from Coventry, small business ownership, being the sole Labour councillor on the entire council before winning the parliamentary seat, SEND councillor experience, the Community Wealth Building campaign, food bank trusteeship, school governor service, a previous 2019 candidacy showing persistence, and the historic first Labour win. His weaknesses include a 3,177 majority in a constituency where Reform UK took 5,834 votes and Conservative support could consolidate, no ministerial office, no legislative achievement, a PACAC placement that does not directly address Island transport or healthcare, and the permanent structural challenge of representing an island constituency from Westminster. At 54, with the engineering background, the small business experience, and the charity work, he has a more distinctive pre-political career than most MPs. Whether the ferry, dentistry and SEND campaigns produce concrete results for islanders will determine whether the historic first becomes a lasting Labour seat.