[2] Fred Austin, born Fredi Stiller, was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List for 2006 in recognition of his service to the communities of Dudley.

[9] In June 2007, Austin was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister to Gordon Brown, with a special provision to attend cabinet meetings.

In the June 2009 reshuffle, he became Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government and Minister for the West Midlands.

[12] Austin was reprimanded by the Speaker of the House of Commons for heckling during Prime Minister's Questions on 18 October 2006, and he was subsequently described by David Cameron as one of Gordon Brown's "boot boys".

[14] On 1 June 2012, Austin apologised after falsely claiming a Palestinian human rights group, Friends of Al-Aqsa, had denied the Holocaust happened in an article he wrote on the Labour Uncut website in 2011.

[15] In June 2014, Deputy Speaker Dawn Primarolo told Austin to apologise after he referred to Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood as an "idiot".

[19] General Secretary Jennie Formby dropped the inquiry in November, although Austin did receive a reprimand from the Chief Whip.

They accepted there was no basis to the claims and that Ms Murray had in fact "devoted significant time and energy to confronting and challenging antisemitism within the Labour Party".

During the 2019 general election, Mainstream purchased targeted advertisements attacking Labour's taxation, spending, and nationalisation policies.

[34] In November 2019, Austin announced he would not stand in the December general election, and advised his constituents to vote for the Conservative Party in order to stop Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister.

[37] Austin's successor, Conservative Marco Longhi, won the seat with a majority of 11,533, defeating the Labour candidate Melanie Dudley.

Austin was nominated for a life peerage in Boris Johnson's Dissolution Honours list in 2020, along with other prominent Corbyn critics Frank Field and John Woodcock, as well as Labour Leave-associated figures Kate Hoey and Gisela Stuart.

In 2013, Austin proposed the government share costs with parents in areas of poor educational attainment who wished to send their children to private schools.

[42][43] In March 2018, Austin described Russia as "a fascist, homophobic dictatorship" and suggested the England team boycott the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

[51] In February 2024, Austin was suspended by Midland Heart, a social landlord, for a tweet in which he said "Everyone, better safe than sorry: before you go to bed, nip down and check you haven’t inadvertently got a death cult of Islamist murderers and rapists running their operations downstairs.