Karl Turner (British politician)

Karl William Turner was born on 15 April 1971 in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. He was raised in the city and was educated at Bransholme High School from 1984 to 1987, leaving at the age of 16. He attended HCC Training to study business administration from 1987 to 1989. Later, Turner became a self-employed antiques dealer.

He returned to education in the late 1990s to study A Levels at Hull College, before graduating with a law degree as a mature student from the University of Hull in 2004. He became a barrister in 2005 after passing the Bar Vocational Course at Northumbria University and went on to practice criminal law for the Max Gold Partnership in Hull. Turner did not complete his pupillage and is no longer authorised to practise by the Bar Standards Board.

Turner was selected by the Labour Party as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Kingston upon Hull East in March 2008 after John Prescott announced he would not stand again. He was elected for the constituency at the 2010 general election with a majority of 8,597, a long way from the large majority his predecessor had and this was further reduced to just 1,239 during the 2019 general election.

In April 2014, Turner referred himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after complaints were made in relation to invitations to a £45-a-head Labour Party fundraising event, sent using parliamentary email accounts. The Commissioner for Standards concluded that there should be no inquiry.

Turner was appointed Shadow Solicitor General by Labour leader Ed Miliband on 3 December 2014, and continued to serve as an opposition whip.

On 11 January 2016, Turner was appointed Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales to replace Catherine McKinnell, who resigned following a reshuffle to the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn. On 26 June 2016, Turner resigned from the Shadow Cabinet following the EU referendum, among a number of his colleagues unhappy with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. He supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election. On 14 October 2016, it was announced that Turner had returned to Labour's frontbench as a Whip.

Following the 2017 general election he was appointed as Shadow Shipping, Aviation and Road Safety Minister within the Shadow Transport team.

On 12 March 2018, allegations of sexual misconduct against Turner were reported in the British press. Turner, via his solicitors, denied making any such comments or behaving inappropriately. The Labour Party said it had not received a formal complaint and that complaints about inappropriate behaviour are taken "extremely seriously".

In September 2019, Speaker of the House John Bercow described Turner as the "noisiest member of the House".

Turner is a member of the Labour Friends of Israel group in Parliament.

In August 2023, Turner apologised after sharing a doctored image of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Twitter.

Turner was reappointed to the position of Shadow Solicitor General in November 2023, succeeding his predecessor Andy Slaughter, who was dismissed from the role. Turner's reappointment came after the removal of Slaughter, attributed to Slaughter's decision to vote for the SNP’s King’s Speech amendment on a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.^{[citation needed]}

He is married to Leanne Turner.

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