Alan Arthur Hurst (2 September 1945 – 31 January 2023) was a British solicitor and Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Braintree in Essex from 1997 to 2005.

Almost as surprising (though not with hindsight, since the Tories made next to no progress nationally in 2001) was his holding the seat at the 2001 general election, though this time with a majority of 358, making it Labour's second-most marginal victory at that election and the sixth-most overall.

[2] He lost the seat in the 2005 general election to Brooks Newmark of the Conservative Party.

He served on the select committee for agriculture for a time (including during the 2001 foot and mouth crisis) and then on the Speaker's Panel.

He occasionally rebelled against the government,[4] often on judicial issues, though not on any high-profile issues or as part of any major rebellions, with the exception of supporting an amendment to the top-up fees bill (Higher Education Act 2004) which would have removed such fees from the bill whilst maintaining other aspects of it, an attempt to have the bill's increased funding for universities without higher fees (presumably by putting up the basic or higher rate of income tax or introducing a graduate tax); the government claimed that the greater funding (almost, though not quite, universally accepted to be necessary) could only be achieved with top-up fees, so the choice was fees or continuing underfunding, but many saw this as a false dichotomy imposed by the government (which had pledged not to raise income tax – indeed, had cut it in its first term – and had already raised National Insurance contributions once, though this move was very popular) to hold funding hostage, as it were, and ensure the bill's passing.