Member of Parliament
He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 general election for the new seat of Hendon, defeating John Gorst, the sitting Conservative MP for the former constituency of Hendon North, by 6,155 votes. He made his maiden speech on 6 June 1997, in which he criticised the government of John Major for closing the Edgware general hospital. He became a member of the Social Security select committee in 1998, and after the 2001 general election its replacement, the Work and Pensions Select Committee, on which he remained until 2005. He has been a member of the Standards and Privileges Select Committee since 2001, and has also been a member of the Human Rights and Liaison committees since 2005.
Dismore asked Tony Blair a parliamentary question about Holocaust memorial and education, and received a written answer on 10 June 1999. This led to the establishment of Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK. He set the 21st century record for a filibuster in the House of Commons by talking for 197 minutes during the debate of the Criminal Law (Amendment) (Protection of Property) Bill, a Private Members Bill which would have enshrined greater protection for householders who confront home invaders, citing that it amounted to "vigilante law".
In the 2010 general election Andrew Dismore lost his seat by 103 (0.2%) votes to Conservative candidate and former Hendon ward councillor Matthew Offord. In his losing speech Dismore accused Offord of "mud-slinging" and “name calling” and being disrespectful to his long term partner. He also stated that “This has not been a clean fight, in my view it's been a pretty dirty campaign. It's my eighth public election and I have never seen such a barrage of personal slurs and lies in this campaign." He is currently attempting to legally challenge the result of the election as he blamed it on a "string of errors" on behalf of Barnet Council.
He is the chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights and a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples.
Following his defeat, he was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the Barnet and Camden constituency in the 2012 London Assembly election, defeating Conservative incumbent Brian Coleman.
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