Greg Pope

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Gregory James Pope (born 29 August 1960) is a British Labour politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Hyndburn from 1992 to 2010. He grew up in Great Harwood near Blackburn and studied Politics at the University of Hull, graduating in 1981.

Pope began in local politics, serving on Hyndburn Borough Council (1984–1988) and briefly on Blackburn Borough Council (1989–1990). He unsuccessfully contested Ribble Valley in 1987, before winning Hyndburn from Conservative Ken Hargreaves in April 1992. He was regarded as a Blairite and was a member of the Henry Jackson Society.

In Parliament he was a government whip from 1997 to 2001 and sat on the Northern Ireland backbench committee (1997–2001). In 2000, while a whip, he accidentally supported a Liberal Democrat clause on green energy; the government later told MPs to vote against it. In 2003 he admitted leaking confidential Foreign Affairs Select Committee evidence to The Guardian about the Iraq dossier.

Pope announced on 11 June 2009 that he would stand down at the 2010 general election. After leaving Parliament, he worked with Catholic education groups, becoming deputy director of the Catholic Education Service in April 2010. In March 2017 he joined the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England & Wales as Assistant General Secretary, becoming Executive Director in 2019 and General Secretary in November 2024.

He married Catherine Fallon on 2 August 1985; they have three children. Their son Conor was deputy editor of Progress, a Labour-aligned group.