Robert Charles Douglas Flello (born 14 January 1966) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent South from 2005 to 2017.
[citation needed] In 2007, Flello was accused of filibustering a fellow Labour backbencher's private members bill.
The bill, introduced by neighbouring Staffordshire MP Paul Farrelly, aimed to give temporary and agency workers similar employment rights to permanent staff.
[3] Subsequently, in May 2013 the MP voted against the bill's third and final reading,[4] opposing the legalisation of same-sex marriage within England and Wales.
[5] Flello is a convert to Catholicism and stated in 2014 "I could no more leave my faith at the door of the House of Commons than I could my name or my gender or my arms and legs".
[7] He had supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.
[12] 36 hours after his selection, however, the Lib Dems deselected Flello, citing "how greatly his values diverge from ours".