James Patrick Dowd is a former British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1992 to 2017, first for Lewisham West and following 2010 for Lewisham West and Penge. He stood down at the 2017 general election, following the announcement of Prime Minister Theresa May's snap election in June 2017.

The 1992 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 April 1992, to elect 651 members to the House of Commons. The election resulted in the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party since 1979, with a majority of 21 and would be the last time that the Conservatives would win an overall majority at a general election until 2015. It was also the last general election to be held on a day which did not coincide with any local elections until 2017. This election result took many by surprise, as opinion polling leading up to the election day had shown a narrow but consistent lead for the Labour Party under leader Neil Kinnock.